The Axion: How Angles Become Particles

Professor Joseph Conlon introduces the general idea of axions: particles associated to fields which are valued on a circle rather than a real line. He describes the still unresolved strong CP problem of the Standard Model, for which the so-called QCD axion provides the most plausible solution. He explains the typical coupling of particle physics axions to electromagnetism and how this leads to axion-photon conversion in magnetic fields and potential search strategies for axions.

Om Podcasten

Learn about quantum mechanics, black holes, dark matter, plasma, particle accelerators, the Large Hadron Collider and other key Theoretical Physics topics. The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics holds morning sessions consisting of three talks, pitched to explain an area of our research to an audience familiar with physics at about second-year undergraduate level.