Friday 21 September, 11:00h, at Nikhef in H331
Speaker: A.P. Lobanov (MPI für Radioastronomie, Bonn & Universität Hamburg)
Title: "Exploring the Dark Universe with Experiments in the Radio Regime"
Abstract:
Addressing the questions of dark matter, dark energy, and the new physics beyond the standard model defines the most fundamental frontier in the modern physical research. Predicted in many extensions of the standard model of particle physics, weakly interacting sub-eV particles (WISP), and axions and hidden photons in particular, are recognized as strongly motivated candidates for the dark matter particles. While sub-eV WISP cannot be detected in accelerator experiments, searches for these particles can be done most efficiently with low-energy laboratory experiments using lasers and microwave cavities and with astrophysical measurements in the radio through gamma-ray bands. The radio regime is exceptionally well suited for detecting the electromagnetic signature of the photon-photon and axion-photon oscillations, extending down to ~10^-19 eV the range of the hidden photon mass probed, and closing the last gaps in the strongly favoured 1-5 micro-eV range for the axion mass. A summary of our recent results in these fields will be given and plans will be presented for a research program that would expand by ~5 orders of magnitude the range of photon mass probed and bring the most stringent constraints on the axion coupling constant in the 1-2 micro-eV and 3-5 micro-eV axion mass ranges.
link naar colloquia pagina