Weak Interaction Discussion Group (WIDG)

WIDG Seminar: Chiara Pancaldo Salemi, MIT, “ABRACADABRA, A Search for Low-Mass Axion Dark Matter”

US/Eastern
WLC 245

WLC 245

Description

ABRACADABRA, A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with A B-field Ring Apparatus, is an experiment that searches for ultra-light axion and axion-like dark matter in the mass range 10^-14-10^-6 eV. It uses a toroidal magnet to source an oscillating effective electric current from interactions with the axion field. This current is then detected and amplified with a SQUID magnetometer. Axions’ tiny electromagnetic coupling means that the experiment must be highly sensitive and have minimal background noise. This talk will present the current status of the first generation of the experiment, ABRACADABRA-10cm.