The Pece Quinn Scale and the Axion

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The axion is a spinoff, a spandrel, from an attempt to solve what is called the strong CP problem. The way it is produced in the early universe is completely different from the way wimps are produced. We haven't found it yet, but we also haven't ruled out as much of the viable parameter space. Some models that are proposed imply that essentially we will never directly detect the dark matter.

Physics is in crisis, what else is new? That's what we hear in certain corners, anyway, usually pointed at "fundamental" physics of particles and fields. (Condensed matter and biophysics etc. are just fine.) In this solo podcast I ruminate on the unusual situation fundamental physics finds itself in, where we have a theoretical understanding that fits almost all the data, but which nobody believes to be the final answer. I talk about how we got here, and argue that it's not really a "crisis" in any real sense. But there are ways I think the academic community could handle the problem better, especially by making more space for respectable but minority approaches to deep puzzles.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/31/245-solo-the-crisis-in-physics/

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