Related papers: The Physics Case for Axions, WIMPs, WISPs and Othe…
Physics beyond the Standard Model naturally gives rise to very light and weakly interacting particles, dubbed WISPs (Weakly Interacting Slim Particles). A prime example is the axion, that has eluded experimental detection for more than…
We present some bottom-up motivations of axions and other weakly interacting sub-eV particles (WISPs) coupling to photons. Typically, these light particles are strongly constrained by their production or interaction in astrophysical and…
Axions and other very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs) may be non-thermally produced in the early universe and survive as constituents of the dark universe. We describe their theoretical motivation and their phenomenology. A huge…
We present an overview over the current status of laboratory experiments searching for (very) weakly coupled slim particles (WISPs). These experiments at the high precision frontier explore new physics beyond the standard model in a…
WIMPs, weakly-interacting massive particles, have been leading candidates for particle dark matter for decades, and they remain a viable and highly motivated possibility. In these lectures, I describe the basic motivations for WIMPs,…
Axions and other very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), with masses below 1 GeV, arise naturally in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. In particular, they could offer a new framework to explain the nature of…
Axions are an increasingly popular topic in theoretical physics, and are sparking a global experimental effort. In the following I review the motivations for the existence of axions, the theories underlying them, and the methods to search…
Several aspects of the motivation for particle dark matter search are introduced. The experimental principles and present state of the most important experiments are presented. Direct searches for WIMPs are explained in some detail,…
The axion solution of the strong CP problem provides a number of possible windows to physics beyond the standard model, notably in the form of searches for solar axions and for galactic axion dark matter, but in a broader context also…
A brief review of particle physics motivations for axion existence is followed by a discussion of optical observables that can be used for axion detection. It is emphasised that the resonant photon - axion transition can occur in the…
Axions and other very weakly interacting slim (with $m <$ 1 GeV) particles (WISPs) are a common feature of several extensions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. The search of WISPs was already recommended in the last update of the…
Observational evidence for dark matter can be explained by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). These dark matter particle candidates could indirectly be detected through the observation of signals produced as part of WIMP…
Many theoretically well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics predict the existence of the axion and further ultralight axion-like particles. They may constitute the mysterious dark matter in the universe and solve…
The physics case for axions and axion-like particles is reviewed and an overview of ongoing and near-future laboratory searches is presented.
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are among the best-motivated dark matter candidates. In light of no conclusive detection signal yet despite an extensive search program that combines, often in a complementary way, direct,…
One of the major challenges of modern physics is to decipher the nature of dark matter. Astrophysical observations provide ample evidence for the existence of an invisible and dominant mass component in the observable universe, from the…
I review the theoretical motivation for the axion and present an update of the experimental status of axion searches. I finally comment on some aspects of the physics of axion-like particles.
Standard Model extensions often predict low-mass and very weakly interacting particles, such as the axion. A number of small-scale experiments at the intensity/precision frontier are actively searching for these elusive particles,…
The investigation on the production of particles in slowly varying but extremely intense magnetic field in extended to the case of axions. The motivation is, as for some previously considered cases, the possibility that such kind of…
One of the most popular classes of candidates for dark matter are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), i.e. particles possessing masses and couplings falling roughly within the electroweak scale. Apart from offering a natural…