Dark Matter

Dark Matter

The nature of  dark matter (DM) particle is still unknown. One of the most interesting candidates for DM is axion or Axion Like Particles (ALPs) for many reasons. Research into the detectability of axion DM has recently revealed a vast numbers of promising experimental designs. Axions can couple to two photons and this property allows one to design high-precision optical setups to detect them. In fact,  the Earth is traveling through an axion DM halo, so it is possible to capture axion induced electric signal by using a table-top experiment. In our group, we are considering different detection methods  of axions through design precise experiments and also from astrophysical evidences.

[1] Light by Light Scattering as a New Probe for Axions, Soroush Shakeri, David J. E. Marsh, She-Sheng Xue (2020) [arXiv:2002.06123].

[2] Probing Virtual Axion-Like Particles by Precision Phase Measurements, Moslem Zarei, Soroush Shakeri, Mehdi Abdi, David J. E. Marsh, Sabino Matarrese (2019)[arXiv:1910.09973].

DM Direct Detection

Considering observational and experimental evidences of different DM candidates such as sterile neutrinos are among our current projects in astroparticle research group.  Sterile neutrinos are one of the best warm dark matter candidates and might be possible to detect them through precise recoil detection analysis of heavy atoms such as XENON.

[3] Shedding New Light on Sterile Neutrinos from XENON1T Experiment, Soroush Shakeri, Fazlollah Hajkarim, She-Sheng Xue (2020) [arXiv:2008.05029]