The new detector is a highly sensitive 'musical instrument.' Its heart is a layered material in a strong magnetic field. The layers form a resonator that amplifies the signal, much like the body of a cello amplifies the sound of a string. When an axion passes through the layers, the magnetic field makes it 'sing'—emitting a photon with a frequency depending on the axion's mass. To tune to this frequency, you simply tilt the device — no internal moving parts, like changing channels on an old TV. This method, akin to spectroscopy, allows scanning a wide range of masses in search of the elusive dark matter signal. Trillions of axions pass through the device every second: their energy could boil a kettle, but they barely interact. Only a few are caught, recorded by a supersensitive detector.
The name 'axion' was a joke by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek: he used the brand of Axion laundry detergent because the new particle 'cleaned up' the theory's inconsistencies.