Revamped Physics Experiment Proffered

U.S. physicists have proposed redesigning an experiment that seeks to confirm the existence of one of the universe’s most elusive particles: the axion.

University of Florida and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicists want to redesign an experiment currently being attempted in various forms by several groups of physicists worldwide. Although theoretical at the moment, they say their design could make such experiments a billion times more sensitive.

Axions are elemental particles whose confirmation would shed light on several conundrums in particle physics — including identifying the nature of dark matter, the mysterious substance said to make up 30 percent of the universe, but so far observed only indirectly by its effects.

The experiment seeks to detect axions by shining a laser down the bore of a powerful superconducting magnet. A wall in the middle stops the laser, with the theoretical axions continuing through the wall and into the other side of the magnet. There, the magnet reconverts them into photons.

The detection of that light is what gives the experiment its iconic name: the shining light through walls experiment.

The proposed modifications are detailed on line in the journal Physical Review Letters.