Joint cosmology seminar at Tufts:

Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 2:30 pm
Robinson Hall, Room 250
Tufts University
Refreshments at 2:00 in Knipp Library, Room 251

Some new probes of axions, vanilla (QCD) and donut (string-inspired).

Daniel Grin
Chicago

Abstract:

I will begin by reviewing the standard lore and existing limits to the QCD axion. I will then explain the possible implications of the recent claimed detection of primordial B-mode CMB polarization for the QCD axion dark matter hypothesis. I will then discuss ongoing work to probe the ultra-light axion like particles seen in some realizations of string theory, using the CMB.