Is an axion a wimp?

Axions are even trickier than WIMPs. They’re theorized to be extremely light—a millionth of an electronvolt or so, about a trillion times lighter than the already tiny electron—making them next to impossible to produce or study in a traditional particle physics experiment.

Is an axion dark matter?

The axion is a hypothetical elementary particle originally postulated to solve the strong CP problem. The axion is also an extremely attractive dark matter candidate. The axion is the puzzle piece allowing these two mysteries to fit naturally into our understanding of the universe.

Is dark matter a WIMPs?

For decades, physicists have hypothesized that weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are the strongest candidate for dark matter — the mysterious substance that makes up 85\% of the Universe’s mass. WIMPs became a favourite candidate for the dark matter in the 1980s.

Are WIMPs and machos dark matter?

Direct detection of WIMPs A satisfying solution to the dark matter problem would be the detection of WIMPs from our Galactic halo as they move past and through the Earth.

Does Axion exist?

Theoretically, axions can be created by other particles colliding or exist naturally as dark matter, which physicists believe makes up a large percentage of the universe that we cannot directly see. The discovery of axions would answer many questions about dark matter and other particle physics mysteries.

Why is Axion cold and dark matter?

Cold dark matter candidates are non-relativistic, i.e. slow moving particles. axions are non-relativistic and therefore fall within the category of CDM. (CDM). This is a zero momentum condensate and so constitutes cold dark matter.

Is it Whimp or WIMP?

The original and still by far the most common spelling of this common bit of slang meaning “weakling, coward,” is “wimp.” If you use the much less common “whimp” instead people may regard you as a little wimpy.

What is an axion particle?

The axion is an hypothetical particle that appears in extensions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics that include the so-called Peccei-Quinn mechanism. The Peccei-Quinn mechanism was proposed to solve this problem in a natural way, without required parameter fine-tunning.

Is Macho dark matter?

The halos of galaxies are believed to contain substantial amounts of dark matter in the form of a dark halo. At least a fraction of this dark matter is made up of ordinary baryonic objects that are simply too faint to be seen.

Does axion exist?