Exploring the Role of Axions and Other WISPs in the Dark Universe

Abstract

Axions and other very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs) may be non-thermally produced in the early universe and survive as constituents of the dark universe. We describe their theoretical motivation and their phenomenology. A huge region in parameter space spanned by their couplings to photons and their masses can give rise to the observed cold dark matter abundance. A wide range of experiments - direct dark matter searches exploiting microwave cavities, searches for solar axions or WISPs, and light-shining-through-a-wall searches - can probe large parts of this parameter space in the foreseeable future.

40 pages, 4 figures, invited review to special issue `The next decade in Dark Matter and Dark Energy' in `Physics of the Dark Universe'; version accepted for publication