The Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr): a dark-matter search with nuclear magnetic resonance

Understand

The Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr) is a nuclear magnetic resonance experiment (NMR) seeking to detect axion and axion-like particles which could make up the dark matter present in the universe.

• We review the predicted couplings of axions and axion-like particles with baryonic matter that enable their detection via NMR.
• We then describe two measurement schemes being implemented in CASPEr.
• The first method, presented in the original CASPEr proposal, consists of a resonant search via continuous-wave NMR spectroscopy.