Search for solar axions with mass around 1 eV using coherent conversion of axions into photons

Inoue, Y.; Akimoto, Yutaro; Ohta, Ryuichi; Mizumoto, Tetsuya; Yamamoto, A.; Minowa, M.

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.08.020

Cited by 132 publications

(124 citation statements)

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“…Experiments such as the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) [8,9] or the Tokyo Axion Helioscope (Sumico) [10] use the sun as a possible source of keV energy axions. These axions can then be converted into detectable keV x-rays via oscillations within laboratory magnetic fields.…”

Section: Solar Axion Searches Via Oscillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel multiplex PCR for the detection of lactic acid bacteria during kimchi fermentation

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Math

Islam

et al. 2009

Molecular and Cellular Probes

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Experimental searches for axions or axion-like particles rely on semiclassical phenomena resulting from the postulated coupling of the axion to two photons. Sensitive probes of the extremely small coupling constant can be made by exploiting familiar, coherent electromagnetic laboratory techniques, including resonant enhancement of transitions using microwave and optical cavities, Bragg scattering, and coherent photon-axion oscillations. The axion beam may either be astrophysical in origin as in the case of dark matter axion searches and solar axion searches, or created in the laboratory from laser interactions with magnetic fields. This note is meant to be a sampling of recent experimental results. IntroductionAxion models are motivated by the strong CP problem-the apparent vanishing of the CP-and Tviolating electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron. The total EDM is expected to receive contributions from both the TeV electroweak scale, via the quark spin, and from the GeV QCD scale, via the spatial distribution of the quark wavefunction within the neutron. It is difficult to understand how these two contributions could cancel to such precision to produce a CP-conserving QCD ground state without fine-tuning of parameters.The axion model of Peccei, Quinn, Weinberg, and Wilczek [1, 2, 3, 4] offers a dynamical solution to the strong CP problem by introducing a new scalar field which rolls within its potential into a state of minimum action, a CP-conserving QCD vacuum state. Any imbalance between the contributions to the EDM from the TeV and GeV scales is absorbed into the scalar field value. The quantized excitations of the scalar field about the potential minimum are called axions.The complex scalar potential starts as a Higgs-like Mexican hat potential, with symmetry-breaking scale f . A massless Goldstone boson lives in the circular minimum of this potential at radius f in field space. During the QCD phase transition, instanton effects give a linear tilt to this potential, lifting it by an amount Λ 4 QCD on one side. The degeneracy of the circular minimum is lifted, and the Goldstone boson starts rolling towards its minimum. While rolling, a portion of the energy from the quark-gluon plasma is stored temporarily as potential energy. The quantized excitations about the potential minimum are called axions, and have mass

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Section: Solar Axion Searches Via Oscillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel multiplex PCR for the detection of lactic acid bacteria during kimchi fermentation

Cho

Math

Islam

et al. 2009

Molecular and Cellular Probes

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“…The sensitivity is smaller because, at each pressure setting, data were typically taken for a few hours only. Despite this limitation, CAST has reached realistic QCD axion models and has superseded previous solar axion searches using the helioscope 17 and Bragg scattering technique 18,19 . (For a more complete list of previous solar axion constraints see ref.…”

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confidence: 99%

New CAST limit on the axion–photon interaction

2017

Nature Phys

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Hypothetical low-mass particles, such as axions, provide a compelling explanation for the dark matter in the universe. Such particles are expected to emerge abundantly from the hot interior of stars. To test this prediction, the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) uses a 9 T refurbished Large Hadron Collider test magnet directed towards the Sun. In the strong magnetic field, solar axions can be converted to X-ray photons which can be recorded by X-ray detectors. In the 2013-2015 run, thanks to low-background detectors and a new X-ray telescope, the signal-to-noise ratio was increased by about a factor of three. Here, we report the best limit on the axion-photon coupling strength (0.66 × 10 −10 GeV −1 at 95% confidence level) set by CAST, which now reaches similar levels to the most restrictive astrophysical bounds.A dvancing the low-energy frontier is a key endeavour in the worldwide quest for particle physics beyond the standard model and in the effort to identify dark matter 1,2 . Nearly massless pseudoscalar bosons, often generically called axions, are particularly promising because they appear in many extensions of the standard model. They can be dark matter in the form of classical field oscillations that were excited in the early universe, notably by the re-alignment mechanism 3 . One particularly well motivated case is the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) axion, the eponym for all such particles. The existence of this new lowmass boson follows from the Peccei-Quinn mechanism as an explanation why QCD is perfectly time-reversal invariant within current experimental precision 3 .Axions were often termed 'invisible' because of their extremely feeble interactions, yet they are the target of a fast-growing international landscape of experiments. Numerous existing and foreseen projects assume that axions are the galactic dark matter and use a variety of techniques that are sensitive to different interaction channels and optimal in different mass ranges 4 . Independently of the dark-matter assumption, one can search for new forces mediated by these low-mass bosons 5 or the back-reaction on spinning black holes (superradiance) 6 . Stellar energy-loss arguments provide restrictive limits that can guide experimental efforts, and in some cases may even suggest new loss channels 3,7,8 .The least model-dependent search strategies use the production and detection of axions and similar particles by their generic twophoton coupling. It is given by the vertex L aγ = −(1/4) g aγ F µν F µν a = g aγ E · B a, where a is the axion field, F the electromagnetic field-strength tensor, and g aγ a coupling constant of dimension (energy) −1 . Notice that we use natural units with = c = k B = 1. This vertex enables the decay a → γ γ , the Primakoff production in stars-that is, the γ → a scattering in the Coulomb fields of charged particles in the stellar plasma-and the coherent conversion a ↔ γ in laboratory or astrophysical B-fields 9,10 .The helioscope concept, in particular, uses a dipole magnet directed at the Sun to convert axions to...

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“…They are best suited to searches for axion dark matter with masses of order 10 −8 eV and below. In addition to axion dark matter searches, there are searches for axions emitted by the Sun [20] and 'shining light through the wall' experiments that attempt to produce and detect axions in the laboratory [21]. Stimulated by ref.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-FG02-97ER41029. [20]. The shaded areas on the right are limits obtained (dark) and anticipated (lighter) by the ADMX axion dark matter search.…”

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Proposal for Axion Dark Matter Detection Using anLCCircuit

2014

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It is shown that dark matter axions cause an oscillating electric current to flow along magnetic field lines. The oscillating current induced in a strong magnetic field B0 produces a small magnetic field Ba. We propose to amplify and detect Ba using a cooled LC circuit and a very sensitive magnetometer. This appears to be a suitable approach to searching for axion dark matter in the 10 −7 to 10 −9 eV mass range.PACS numbers: 95.35.+d Shortly after the Standard Model of elementary particles was established, the axion was postulated [1] to explain why the strong interactions conserve the discrete symmetries P and CP. Further motivation for the existence of such a particle came from the realization that cold axions are abundantly produced during the QCD phase transition in the early universe and that they may constitute the dark matter [2]. Moreover, it has been claimed recently that axions are the dark matter, at least in part, [3][4][5] because axions form a Bose-Einstein condensate and this property explains the occurrence of caustic rings in galactic halos. The evidence for caustic rings with the properties predicted by axion BEC is summarized in ref. [6]. In supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, the dark matter may be a mixture of axions and supersymmetric dark matter candidates [7].Axion properties depend mainly on a single parameter f a , called the axion decay constant. In particular the axion mass (h = c = 1) m a ≃ 6 · 10 −6 eV 10 12 GeV f aand its coupling to two photonswith g = g γ α πfa . Here a(x) is the axion field, E(x) and B(x) the electric and magnetic fields, α the fine structure constant, and g γ a model-dependent coefficient of order one. g γ ≃ −0.97 in the KSVZ model [8] whereas g γ ≃ 0.36 in the DFSZ model [9]. Cold axions are produced during the QCD phase transition, when the axion mass turns on and the axion field begins to oscillate in response. The resulting axion cosmological energy density is proportional to (f a ) 7 6 and, in the simplest case, reaches the critical energy density for closing the universe when f a is of order 10 12 GeV [2]. This suggests that the most promising mass range in axion searches is near 10 −5 eV. This happens to be approximately where the cavity axion detection technique [10] is most feasible and where the ADMX experiment [11] is searching at present.However, it is desirable to search for axion dark matter over the widest possible mass range because the axion mass is, in reality, poorly constrained. In particular, it has been argued that if there is no inflation after the Peccei-Quinn phase transition, the contribution of axion strings to the axion cosmological energy density [12] implies that the preferred mass for dark matter axions is in the 10 −3 to 10 −4 eV mass range [13]. On the other hand, if there is inflation after the Peccei-Quinn phase transition, the axion field gets homogenized during inflation and the homogenized field may accidentally lie close to the minimum of its effective potential [14], in which case axions may be the dark ma...

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Search for solar axions with mass around 1 eV using coherent conversion of axions into photons

Cited by 132 publications

References 28 publications

Novel multiplex PCR for the detection of lactic acid bacteria during kimchi fermentation

Novel multiplex PCR for the detection of lactic acid bacteria during kimchi fermentation

New CAST limit on the axion–photon interaction

Proposal for Axion Dark Matter Detection Using anLCCircuit

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