Physics Colloquium

Please note that this will be held in person. Coffee and cookies will be served in the Physics Seminar Lounge at 3:00pm
Abstract:
One of the top-ten Particle/Nuclear Physics questions today is the nature of dark matter. Axion, a consequence of the solution to the Strong-CP problem, is one leading candidate with very small coupling to regular matter and hard to observe, hence it was called the "invisible" axion, when it was first proposed. Pierre Sikivie suggested a method to observe this particle but the early attempts at BNL proved it would be a long time before theoretically interesting sensitivities are reached. The Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS-CAPP) of South Korea was established to change that. We have applied a Particle-Physics approach to the problem with a massive parallel R&D effort focused on important innovations that could make the difference. Today we can be optimistic about the 1-8 GHz axion frequency range within the next five years and reasonably so to extend this reach to 25 GHz within the next ten years. I am going to show the approach we took, our failures, and successes and the lessons learned on how to conquer a difficult but important science field.