Berkeley Axion Workshop 2025

US/Pacific
Description

Axion dark matter has deep motivations from string theory to the strong CP problem.  However, only recently has it been understood how to build instruments that can probe much of the most well motivated parameter space, in particular at sub micro-electronvolt masses.  This workshop will bring together experimentalists and theorists to explore the surge of recent advances in this field and to strategize how theoretical and experimental efforts can drive future axion discoveries.

This three day event will be hosted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is open to the public.  On Wednesday evening (May 7) there will be a reception and poster session held on-site at LBNL.  On Thursday evening (May 8) there will be a workshop dinner, held in Berkeley. 

In addition to the keynote presentations, we are calling on abstracts from the broader community.  The organizing committee will select submissions for both talks and posters. Please submit an abstract by March 21, 2025.  Indicate in a separate paragraph in your abstract submission if you would like to be considered for a short talk, a poster, or potentially both.  We especially encourage submissions from junior researchers.  Participation in the workshop (without giving a talk or poster) is also highly encouraged. 

Registration is now closed: The registration fee is $\$200$ for general attendees and $\$50$ for students.

Accommodation: We are holding a limited number of rooms at the LBNL Guest House for participant accomodation. We encourage you to book rooms as the Guest House early.

You may book accomodation at the guest house at this website. Please click "I have a group booking code" and use the booking code B00625. You can also make a reservation by calling (510) 495-8000 or sending an email to reservation@berkeleylabguesthouse.org, although when doing so make sure to mention the booking code. Off-site accomodation in the town of Berkeley is also possible, and we will provide a shuttle service to get from downtown to LBNL building 50, where the workshop will take place.

Logistics:

  • All talks: Lawrence Berkeley Lab, 1 Cyclotron Road, Building 50, 4th floor auditorium. 
  • Poster Session / reception (Wednesday 18:00 May 7): Building 91, 3rd floor, room 310. The posters will all be displayed in 91-3-310 with the reception in the adjacent lobby/patio area
  • Conference Dinner (Thursday 18:00 May 8): Great Hall at the Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley Campus at 1 Faculty Club #6050 
  • Food + coffee: Breakfast, lunch, and coffee will be provided at the workshop. 
Directions page for the Faculty Club: https://www.berkeleyfacultyclub.com/visit
Map of LBNL with buildings labeled: https://www2.lbl.gov/LBL-Work/lab-site-map.html
Physics visitor page with useful links: https://www.physics.lbl.gov/visitor-information/

 

Confirmed keynote speakers:

  • Chelsea Bartram
  • Masha Baryakhtar
  • Manuel Bautista
  • Asher Berlin
  • Saptarshi Chaudhuri
  • Aaron Chou
  • Luca Di Luzio
  • Savas Dimopoulos
  • Bianca Giaccone
  • Peter Graham
  • Keisuke Harigaya
  • Yoni Kahn
  • Stefan Knirck
  • Axel Lindner
  • Claudio Manzari 
  • Liam McAllister
  • Hitoshi Murayama
  • Reina Maruyama
  • Kerstin Perez
  • Soren Prestemon
  • Gray Rybka
  • Chiara Salemi
  • Andrew Sonnenschein
  • Pierre Sikivie
  • Alex Sushkov
  • Edward Witten
  • Kevin Zhou

 

Abstract Submission for Posters/Talks: we welcome applications for short talks and posters through the abstract submission link.

Code of Conduct: We expect all participants to adhere to the LBL code of conduct

Organizers: Kent Irwin, Nick Rodd, Ben Safdi, Chiara Salemi, Karl Van Bibber, and Lindley Winslow

Support: this event is made possible in part due to the generous support of the Department of Energy, Office of High Energy Physics

    • 1
      Opening Remarks
      Speaker: Michael Witherell
    • 2
      New Technologies for Axion Detection
      Speaker: Yonatan Kahn (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
    • 3
      QCD axions: astrophysical parameter space and high-mass searches
      Speaker: Prof. Masha Baryakhtar
    • 4
      Echoes of Axion Dark Matter and Axion Stars
      Speaker: Yitian Sun
    • 10:30 AM
      Coffee Break
    • 5
      Kinetic/Acoustic Misalignment and baryon asymmetry
      Speaker: Keisuke Harigaya (University of Chicago)
    • 6
      Searching for Axions and High-Frequency Gravitational Waves with ABRACADABRA-10cm
      Speaker: Kaliroe Pappas
    • 7
      Quantum Sensing for DMRadio with Radio-frequency Quantum Upconverters
      Speaker: Cady van Assendelft (Stanford University)
    • 8
      Dark Matter Searches on Photonic Chips
      Speaker: Christina Gao
    • 9
      Observation of the Axion quasiparticle
      Speaker: Suyang Xu
    • 12:45 PM
      Lunch
    • 10
      Axions and String Theory: General Remarks
      Speaker: Edward Witten
    • 11
      String Compactifications with Many Axions
      Speaker: Liam McAllister
    • 12
      Testing unification and heterotic strings with axions

      In this talk I will discuss axion couplings to gauge bosons in 4-dimensional Grand Unified Theories and in heterotic String Theory. The topological nature of these couplings allows them to be matched from the UV to the IR, and the ratio of the anomaly with photons and gluons for any axion is fixed by unification. I will show that this implies that there is a single axion — the QCD axion — with an anomalous coupling to photons. Other light axion-like particles can couple to photons by mixing with the QCD axion, and necessarily lie to the right of the QCD line prediction in the mass-coupling plane. As a result, a discovery of an axion to the left of the QCD line can rule out simple GUTs and most of the studied heterotic string compactifications. (Based on: 2206.07053 and 2410.03820)

      Speaker: Mario Reig (University of Oxford)
    • 3:30 PM
      Coffee
    • 13
      Imperfect Axions
      Speaker: Luca Di Luzio (INFN Padua)
    • 14
      Axion Signatures from Supernovae and Neutron Stars Mergers: A Full-Sky Search with GALAXIS
      Speaker: Claudio Andrea Manzari (LBNL & UCB)
    • 15
      Indirect probes of QCD axion with Fast Radio Burst Timing
      Speaker: Huangyu Xiao (Fermilab)
    • Poster session and reception
    • 16
      Status and Future of ADMX
      Speaker: Gray Rybka (University of Washington)
    • 17
      QCD Axion Dark Matter Searches with HAYSTAC, ALPHA, and RAY
      Speaker: Reina Maruyama
    • 18
      Quantum-limited magnetic resonance detection for the CASPEr axion dark matter search
      Speaker: Alex Sushkov
    • 10:30 AM
      Coffee Break
    • 19
      DMRadio-GUT: a future lumped-element search for GUT-motivated QCD axions
      Speaker: Chiara Salemi (UC Berkeley and LBNL)
    • 20
      Magnet technologies for GUT-scale axion searches
      Speaker: Soren Prestemon
    • 21
      Hunting for QCD Axion Dark Matter with the Princeton Axion Search
      Speaker: Saptarshi Chaudhuri
    • 12:30 PM
      Lunch
    • 22
      A Loophole in the Isocurvature Bound on the QCD Axion
      Speaker: Peter W. Graham (Stanford University)
    • 23
      Superradiant Interactions of Cosmic Relics
      Speaker: Savas Dimopoulos
    • 2:45 PM
      Coffee Break
    • 24
      Simons Foundation Vision for Dark Matter and Axions
      Speaker: David Spergel
    • 25
      DOE Vision for Dark Matter and Axions
      Speaker: Manuel Bautista
    • 26
      P5 / APS Vision for Dark Matter and Axions
      Speaker: Hitoshi Murayama
    • 27
      Axion dark matter explains the formation of supermassive black holes at cosmic dawn
      Speaker: Pierre Sikivie
    • 28
      TBA
      Speaker: Prof. Dmitry Budker
    • 6:00 PM
      Conference Dinner (UC Berkeley Faculty Club
    • 29
      Solar Axions with the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) and BabyIAXO
      Speaker: Kerstin Perez
    • 30
      Searching for Dark Sectors with Superconducting RF Cavities
      Speaker: Asher Berlin
    • 31
      The Superconducting Heterodyne Approach to Axion Detection
      Speaker: Kevin Zhou
    • 10:30 AM
      Coffee
    • 32
      “Hybrid-Superconducting” Cavities with ADMX Sidecar
      Speaker: Nick Du (Lawrence Livermore National Labs)
    • 33
      ARIADNE: Recent Progress and Future Outlook
      Speaker: Alexander Hipp (Northwestern Univeristy)
    • 34
      The Piezoaxionic Effect: dark matter detection and new forces
      Speaker: Amalia Madden (KITP)
    • 35
      A quantum protocol for observing superradiant interactions of cosmic relics
      Speaker: Marios Galanis (Perimeter)
    • 36
      Learning our place in the Axiverse
      Speaker: David Cyncynates (University of Washington, Seattle)
    • 37
      QCD Axion Dark Matter in String Theory
      Speaker: Naomi Gendler (Harvard University)
    • 12:30 PM
      Lunch
    • 38
      SHADE and Beyond at SQMS
      Speaker: Bianca Giaccone
    • 39
      ALPS II: axion searches without the dark matter paradigm
      Speaker: Axel Lindner
    • 40
      DMRadio-m3: a proposed QCD axion search
      Speaker: Chelsea Bartram
    • 3:30 PM
      Coffee
    • 41
      Detecting meV axions: Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection (BREAD)

      We present BREAD (Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection). BREAD is a novel, scalable approach to detect meV axions using a dish antenna in high-field solenoid magnets. Several orders of axion mass around the meV range are particularly well motivated by the post-inflationary symmetry breaking scenario for the QCD axion. We present first results with BREAD prototypes, including the world's first search for axion-like particles with a dish antenna, and discuss future avenues for increasing sensitivity and mass range.

      Speaker: Stefan Knirck (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)
    • 42
      The Dark Wave Lab: A Proposal for Shared Magnet and Cryogenic Facilities for Axion Searches at Fermilab
      Speaker: Andrew Sonnenschein (Fermilab)
    • 43
      Closing remarks