The QCD axion, precisely

October 17, 2016
3:00pm to 4:00pm

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Theoretical Physics, general interest
Speaker: 
Giovanni Villadoro
Institution: 
ICTP Trieste
Location&Place: 

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Abstract: 

The QCD axion is probably the most robust solution to the strong CP 
problem and a natural dark matter candidate. While its properties, such as the 
mass and the couplings, are mostly determined by non-perturbative QCD effects 
I will present recent computations demonstrating that they can be safely 
extracted with percent accuracy, which is important for the theory 
interpretation of experimental results. I will also present some recent 
lattice QCD results highlighting a large departure from the usual instanton 
estimates and changing substantially the prediction for the axion relic 
abundance.