Axion cold dark matter: two birds with the same stone

Presenter: Javier Redondo (TU Munich)

Chair: Irene Tamborra

Abstract

In this webinar we will briefly review the strong CP problem and the solution proposed by Peccei and Quinn, the existence of a new degree of freedom that restores C and P conservation in the colour sector: the axion. Then we will review the cosmology of axions focusing on their role as dark matter (hot and cold), and the perspectives for its discovery.

Time-permitting, we shall also have a glimpse of the generalisation of axion cosmology to other weakly interacting slim particles such as axion-like particles or hidden photons, which can also realise the WISPy cold dark matter paradigm and for which a much wider parameter space remains to be explored.