Speaker: Shay Inbar, Department of Physics Graduate Student
Abstract: The axion is a hypothetical particle originally postulated to solve the strong CP problem in particle physics. It is also a promising candidate to be dark matter, which had been a long-standing problem in physics and cosmology: the evidence for its existence is abundant, yet no direct measurement has confirmed it as of yet, and its nature is unknown. The speculated role of the axion in both these puzzles had motivated experimental searches for it. We propose an experimental scheme for the generation and detection of axions using four-wave mixing in optical fibers. Advantages of this scheme are the large interaction length inside the optical fibers, and our control of the operating lasers, which allows for the scanning of a range of axion masses.