Network in Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS) Seminar

Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the CMB with POLARBEAR

Date: Tuesday, April 4th

Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Place: Meeting ID: 912 3071 4547 NOTE: All participants and hosts are now required to sign into a Zoom account prior to joining meetings hosted by UC Berkeley.

Speaker: Jacob Spisak, UCSD

Abstract: Very light pseudoscalar fields, often referred to as axions, are compelling dark matter candidates and can potentially be detected through their coupling to the electromagnetic field. Recently a novel detection technique using the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was proposed, which relies on the fact that the axion field oscillates at a frequency equal to its mass in appropriate units, leading to a time-dependent birefringence. For appropriate oscillation periods this allows the axion field at the telescope to be detected via the induced sinusoidal oscillation of the CMB linear polarization. I will discuss how we search for this effect using the POLARBEAR telescope and the constraints we place.

Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 912 3071 4547
NOTE: All participants and hosts are now required to sign into a Zoom account prior to joining meetings hosted by UC Berkeley.

Host: Baha Balantekin

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