Seminar on Experimental Avenues Toward the Axion and Axionic Dark Matter by Karl Van Bibber

On September 6, University of California (Berkeley) professor, Karl van Bibber, will deliver an online class on Experimental Avenues Toward the Axion and Axionic Dark Matter.

The nature of the universe's dark matter has long puzzled the minds of modern-day scientists. The Axion is not only one of the most promising candidates for particles making up the dark matter but also a perfect solution to the long-standing problem of the Standard Model, also known as the strong CP problem. Researchers conduct elegant experiments based on the Primakoff effect, the coherent conversion of axions to microwave photons in a magnetic field, trying to discover the axion and axionic dark matter. During experiments, this conversion can be resonantly enhanced in a microwave cavity. 

The microwave cavity search for dark matter became a driving force behind quantum information science. HAYSTAC has recently published the results of the first-ever experiments with the use of a squeezed-vacuum state receiver for overcoming the standard quantum limit for noise. 

The presentation will start off with a general discussion on dark matter and the axion as both an object studied in particle physics and as a dark matter candidate.

On the speaker

Karl van Bibber is a professor and an executive associate dean for the College of Engineering, the University of California (Berkeley). His research interests include fundamental and applied nuclear physics, astroparticle physics, and the science and technology of particle accelerators.

Prof. Bibber earned his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in experimental nuclear physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a PhD researcher at Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and then an assistant professor at Stanford University. Then, he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where he founded and headed the High Energy Physics and Accelerator Technology Group. During his civil service, he worked as a chief scientist for the Physics and Space Technology directorate and the deputy head of the Laboratory Science and Technology Office. In 2009, he was selected as the Vice President and dean of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. In 2012, he joined UC Berkeley as a professor and chair of the Faculty of Nuclear Engineering, serving also as an executive director of the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium – a DOE Office of Non-Proliferation center-of-excellence. In July 2017, Prof. Bibber was appointed as an associate dean for research, and in July 2019 – as an executive associate dean at the College of Engineering. Karl van Bibber is a laureate of the Sloan Research Fellowship and a member of APS and AAAS.