Design considerations for an axion detector

The Axion Dark Matter experiment (ADMX) is conducting a search for dark-matter axions trapped in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy. Axions, originally postulated to solve the strong CP problem in particle physics, would have been created as cold (non-relativistic) very weakly interacting particles in the early stages of the expansion of the universe. If their mass is in the range 2 to 50 microeV, axions could be a significant component of the dark matter in the universe. The discovery of the axion, or placing limits on its abundance, would therefore have very important implications for understanding the nature of dark matter, which is one of the most significant problems in contemporary physics.