Illuminating the Nature of Dark Matter with Magnetic Resonance Experiments

by Prof. Derek Jackson Kimball

Department Of Physics, California State University - East Bay

at Physics Colloquium

Tue, 21 May 2019, 15:30
Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology (51), room 015

Abstract

Over 80% of the mass in the universe is made up of an invisible substance known as dark matter. Evidence of dark matter's gravitational pull on stars and galaxies has been found by a wide variety of astrophysical observations. But what exactly is dark matter? This is a complete mystery. There are a number of hypotheses that are being tested by experiments throughout the world. We discuss our work as part of two different international collaborations to test if dark matter might be made of particles known as axions. In the Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques are being used to search for oscillating dipole interactions induced by an axion dark matter field. The Global Network of Optical Magnetometers to search for Exotic physics (GNOME) is a worldwide array of atomic magnetometers that searches for transient signals generated if the Earth passes through an invisible axion “wall” or “star.” We report initial results from both experiments.

Created on 30-04-2019 by Bar, Ilana (ibar)
Updaded on 30-04-2019 by Bar, Ilana (ibar)