CAST (CERN Axion Solar Telescope)

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Completed solar axion searches, transitioned to halo searches

Fusion reactors might crack open the dark matter mystery without trying. University of Cincinnati physicist Jure Zupan and colleagues at Fermilab, MIT, and Technion just published a breakthrough. The study shows how neutrons slamming into reactor walls could spawn axions—hypothetical particles that may explain the 27% of the universe we can't see, and we're already building these reactors for clean energy.

Updated May 16