Astrophysics (Index) | About |
The Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) is a dark matter detector to detect axions as potential dark matter (DM) particles. Axions are a theoretical type of particle (none have been detected) that have been considered a possibility as a dark matter particle for decades, but axion theory suggests it is a much less massive particle than the mass range suggested by the WIMP miracle. Efforts to discover WIMPs within the expected mass range have not succeeded, leading to some revival of research interest in other types DM particles, such as axions.
ADMX began in 1995 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), consisting of a haloscope, a type of axion detector designed to produce radio from any axions within a chamber with a strong magnetic field. The effort was relocated to the University of Washington in 2010, where ADMX G2 has been developed with improved cooling and sensors (SQUIDs).