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'Cosmic radio' detector could discover dark matter within 15 years

(phys.org)
34 points rbanffy | 1 comments | 17 Apr 25 12:26 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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pavel_lishin ◴[19 Apr 25 14:13 UTC] No.43736565[source]▶
> The AQ is designed so its frequency can be transmitted into space, a frequency that would match with the axion. When it identifies and 'tunes in' to that frequency, it will emit very small amounts of light. AQ operates at the highest terahertz frequencies, which many researchers believe to be the most promising place to look for axions.

Can someone explain this using an analogy that makes sense?

replies(1): >>43736642 #
pyinstallwoes ◴[19 Apr 25 14:26 UTC] No.43736642[source]▶
Sympathetic resonance. Two guitars in a room, pluck the A string of one, the other A string will vibrate. “Spooky action at a distance”
replies(1): >>43736780 #
slow_typist ◴[19 Apr 25 14:48 UTC] No.43736780[source]▶
If that is what they wanted to say they did a very bad job. And spooky action at a distance is a term related to quantum entanglement, which has probably nothing to do with the phenomenon they tried to describe here.
replies(1): >>43736832 #
evanb ◴[19 Apr 25 14:55 UTC] No.43736832[source]▶
You're right; this is nothing to do with spooky action at a distance.

But sympathetic response, or resonance, is how this device would work---just like a radio. Axions couple to electromagnetism; by listening in on different frequencies we can see if there is any "cosmic signal being broadcast" (meaning: axions suffusing the galaxy); the frequency of the signal corresponds to the mass of the axion.

In that sense, the search for resonances is a classic approach in particle physics; various particles were discovered by finding increased signals at particular collision energies. What's different here is that it isn't a resonance in a collision cross-section but an axion --> electromagnetism conversion.

replies(1): >>43738063 #
1. staplung ◴[19 Apr 25 17:48 UTC] No.43738063[source]▶
Any chance this could lead to a resonance cascade? I saw some documentary where that happened at a remote corporate facility in the desert somewhere...Dark Table maybe. I was surprised to see such heavy use of a crowbar at a place doing advanced physics. ;-)