The Higgs Boson and Particle Physics at the LHC: a Progress Report and Plans for the Future

Physics Colloquium 13th February 2015 Deliverd by Daniela Bortoletto The QCD axion was proposed more than thirty years ago to explain the smallness of the electric dipole moment of the neutron and has been looked for ever since. It is an excellent dark matter candidate and its size is significantly larger compared to the elementary particles of the Standard Model: it can easily vary from tens of microns to thousands of kilometers. When its size is similar to that of astrophysical black holes, it binds to them forming a gravitational atom in the sky. The number of axions occupying the levels of this gravitational atom can grow exponentially around rapidly rotating black holes through an effect that is known as super-radiance. This growth slows the black hole down and a Bose Einstein Condensate of axions is formed orbiting the black hole. Just like a laser, this BEC emits gravitational waves as axions can annihilate or transition to different levels of this gravitational atom. These gravitational waves fall within the frequency range of the upcoming Advanced LIGO experiment. Through super-radiance, black holes are thus turned into cosmic particle detectors through the only universal force: gravity. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

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The Department of Physics public lecture series. An exciting series of lectures about the research at Oxford Physics take place throughout the academic year. Looking at topics diverse as the creation of the universe to the science of climate change. Features episodes previously published as: (1) 'Oxford Physics Alumni': "Informal interviews with physics alumni at events, lectures and other alumni related activities." (2) 'Physics and Philosophy: Arguments, Experiments and a Few Things in Between': "A series which explores some of the links between physics and philosophy, two of the most fundamental ways with which we try to answer our questions about the world around us. A number of the most pertinent topics which bridge the disciplines are discussed - the nature of space and time, the unpredictable results of quantum mechanics and their surprising consequences and perhaps most fundamentally, the nature of the mind and how far science can go towards explaining and understanding it. Featuring interviews with Dr. Christopher Palmer, Prof. Frank Arntzenius, Prof. Vlatko Vedral, Dr. David Wallace and Prof. Roger Penrose."