dietz@cornell.UUCP (Paul Dietz) (06/18/84)
[...] I've read about certain hypothetical elementary particles called axions. Can some physics guru tell me just what these things are? Here's what I've heard about them: (1) they are electrically neutral, (2) they have a low mass (in the eV-KeV range), and (3) they may be the "dark matter" in our galaxy. Also, I've heard someone has proposed detecting axions by converting them to photons using a magnetic field with rapid spatial variations. If the density of axions is high enough this could make an excellent energy source -- in effect, total conversion of (axionic) matter to usable radiant energy. Paul Dietz (dietz@usc-ecla)
flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) (06/19/84)
I don't know what present-day axions are, but about ten years ago a Dr. Anton Schneiderov used to show up at APS and AGU meeting and give papers on his kind of axions, hypothetical zero-mass particles that Schneiderov thought pervaded the entire universe. He attempted to put an upper bound on the axion flux through the earth from observed free oscillations of the earth.
rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (06/27/84)
The only axions I ever heard about were the ones that have zero rest mass, zero spin, zero baryon number, zero charge, don't decay, are their own anti-particle, don't interact with matter, and don't interact with photons. Other than that, they're like any particle :-). Sorry, I just had to get this out of my system. This is for all the people who like to invent new particles because it's fun. -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh