Date/Time
Date(s) - 05/11/2014
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Title: Fundamental Physics Beyond Colliding Particles

Speaker: Dr. Asimina Arvanitaki

Institute: Perimeter Institute

Location: ABB 102

Description:

When we think about Particle physics the first thing that comes to mind is colliders and high energies. In this talk, I will describe how low energy experiments can probe new phenomena, new particles and new forces of nature. I will focus on two new experiments: the gravitational wave detector of advanced LIGO and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques. These two very different experiments can be used to detect the same particle, the QCD axion. The axion, which is an excellent Dark Matter candidate, has been proposed more than thirty years ago to explain the smallness of the neutron’s dipole moment and has been searched for ever since. Using NMR, it can be detected through the interactions it mediates in matter. Due to superradiance, the monochromatic gravity waves emitted by the gravitational “atom” it forms around astrophysical black holes signal its presence at Advanced LIGO.