Axions at the crossroads: QCD, dark matter, astrophysics

The aim of the workshop is to review and discuss the recent advances in the study of axions and future perspectives, ranging from their theoretical underpinning, over their indirect observational consequences in astrophysics, to their direct detection in laboratory experiments. Searches for axions are strongly motivated by our attempts to understand one remaining mystery in the physics of strong interactions, the strong CP problem: in a nutshell, the very low neutron EDM constrains the CP violation to be unnaturally small. Axions might explain this and, at the same time, they will help to understand the nature of dark matter, and to explain puzzling astrophysical and particle physics observations. A rich, diverse, and lowcost experimental program is already underway that has the potential for one or more game-changing discoveries. The workshop is structured to address these issues in a synergic way and to stimulate discussions and collaborations among scientists working on axions from different perspectives.