Looking for information about axions.

[Jodo Kast]

I'm looking for a book written for non-scientists that has details about axions. As far as I know, they are particles that have been theorized and not experimentally detected. I'm not really sure why they have been theorized other than that they might be dark matter.

Thanks for any help.

 

[mathman]

I doubt if anyone has written a book on this subject. If you google "axion" you will get a lot of material, including some historical background, as well as implications for dark matter. This may be enough.

 

[Jodo Kast]

I doubt if anyone has written a book on this subject. If you google "axion" you will get a lot of material, including some historical background, as well as implications for dark matter. This may be enough.

I also doubt it, but it's possible. I'm curious about them for a couple of reasons. Typically, theorized particles have been discovered. Thus, it is likely that the axion does exist. I have a very poor understanding of why axions were theorized, much unlike other particles, such as the neutrino. Also, axions came out of nowhere (from my point of view). I didn't hear of them until 2009. They aren't mentioned in The New Cosmic Onion or The Particle Odyssey. And that does make some sense, since those books only cover what we actually know for sure.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Typically, theorized particles have been discovered.

You couldn't be more wrong. Most have not been discovered, and there are so many mutually contradictory theories out there that it's safe to say most will never be discovered.

You probably want to look at Pierre Sikivie's http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/9506229". That's the most elementary introduction out there.

 

[Jodo Kast]

You couldn't be more wrong. Most have not been discovered, and there are so many mutually contradictory theories out there that it's safe to say most will never be discovered.

You probably want to look at Pierre Sikivie's http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/9506229". That's the most elementary introduction out there.

Thanks for the link; looks like a good read. If most particles that have been theorized have not been discovered, then there are many more particles than I am aware of. The books I have tend to be very realistic and list what particles have been discovered, which led me to believe that theoreticians have been doing a very good job. Particle physics seems very simple to me, with a small set of fermions (which lead to baryons) and bosons (which lead to mesons). Now that I know about axions and Majorana neutrinos (as opposed to the familiar Dirac neutrinos), I'm beginning to suspect things are a lot more complicated.

 

[ansgar]

Thanks for the link; looks like a good read. If most particles that have been theorized have not been discovered, then there are many more particles than I am aware of. The books I have tend to be very realistic and list what particles have been discovered, which led me to believe that theoreticians have been doing a very good job. Particle physics seems very simple to me, with a small set of fermions (which lead to baryons) and bosons (which lead to mesons). Now that I know about axions and Majorana neutrinos (as opposed to the familiar Dirac neutrinos), I'm beginning to suspect things are a lot more complicated.

yes of course it seems simple, the winner writes the history..