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A new telescope currently in its design phase of development could detect axions, hypothetical particles of dark matter, by searching for signals in an unexplored high microwave frequency band. If successful, it could find crucial evidence aiding two of the most perplexing mysteries in physics, those of dark matter and the strong CP problem.

Axions are particles whose existence was proposed in the 1970s as a solution to the problem of dark matter, the as-of-yet unobserved substance making up 85% of matter in the universe. Interacting only weakly with everyday matter and photons, so far axions have eluded detection. Dark photons are also hypothetical particles relating to dark matter, as a counterpart to normal photons, particles of light. Both axions and dark photons are not part of the Standard Model of particle physics, so their discovery could be revolutionary

The DALI experiment, that is the Dark-photons and Axion-Like particle Interferometer, will be an international collaboration including the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. A superconducting magnet two metres long makes up most of the planned telescope, and houses the cryostat containing the interferometer where particles are detected. Sitting atop an altazimuth mount to allow fast rotation, the telescope will be capable of tracking across the sky and scanning large regions while in ‘raster mode’, a unique feature for a dark matter telescope.

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