Event Details

The QCD axion is one of the most compelling solutions of the strong CP problem. There are major current efforts into searching for an ultralight, invisible axion, which is believed to be the only phenomenologically viable realization of the QCD axion. Visible axions with decay constants at or below the electroweak scale are believed to have been long excluded by laboratory searches. Considering the significance of the axion solution of the strong CP problem, in this talk I will revisit experimental constraints on QCD axions in the O(10 MeV) mass window, and point out a variant axion model that still remains compatible with existing constraints. This model predicts new states at the GeV scale coupled hadronically, and a variety of low-energy axion signatures, such as rare meson decays, nuclear de-excitations via axion emission, production in e+e− annihilation and fixed target experiments. This reopens the possibility of solving the strong CP problem at the GeV scale.