Probing eV-scale axions with CAST

By E. Arik, S. Aune, D. Autiero, K. Barth, A. Belov, B. Beltrán, B. Beltrán, S. Borghi, G. Bourlis, F. S. Boydaǧ and 62 more. 2008

249 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have searched for solar axions or other pseudoscalar particles that couple to two photons by using the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) setup. Whereas we previously have reported results from CAST with evacuated magnet bores (Phase I), setting limits on lower mass axions, here we report results from CAST where the magnet bores were filled with 4He gas (Phase II) of variable pressure. The introduction of gas generates a refractive photon mass mγ, thereby achieving the maximum possible conversion rate for those axion masses ma that match mγ. With 160 different pressure settings we have scanned ma up to about 0.4 eV, taking approximately 2 h of data for each setting. From the absence of excess x-rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun, we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of gaγ2.2 × 10−10 GeV−1 at 95% CL for ma0.4 eV, the exact result depending on the pressure setting. The excluded parameter range covers realistic axion models with a Peccei-Quinn scale in the neighborhood of fa ~ 107 GeV. Currently in the second part of CAST Phase II, we are searching for axions with masses up to about 1.2 eV using 3He as a buffer gas.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5a5e6eb32b38b9c6380f33d21aa1fc04c9a94eba

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Citations in the corpus

Dark matter and fundamental physics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (2012, background): “Assuming a mid-value of B∼0.1 nG, andM11 = 0.114 (CAST lower limit), the effect could be observationally detectable by IACTs only if the ALP mass is of the order of 10−10 eV, i.e. we need ultra-light ALPs.”
Axions as dark matter particles (2009, background): “pressure in small steps to as high as feasible. In this manner, axions have now been excluded part-way into the Peccei-Quinn model band, gaγγ <2.2 × 10−10 GeV−1 (95% c.l.), valid for ma <0.4 eV [77]. This phase of the experiment continues with 3He gas which will permit probing of yet higher ma”
Conceptual design of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO) (2014, background): “ high sensitivity up to an axion mass of m a = 1:17 eV. Data released up to now provide an average limit of g ag (95% CL) . 2:3 10 10 GeV 1, for the higher mass range of 0.02 eV < m a < 0.64 eV [29, 30] and of about g ag (95% CL) . 3:3 10 10 GeV 1 for 0.64 eV <m a < 1.17 eV [31], with th”
New CAST limit on the axion–photon interaction (2017, background): “Later, CAST has explored this higher-mass range by filling the conversion pipes with (4)He [14, 15] and (3)He [16, 17] at variable pressure settings to provide photons with a refractive mass and in this way match the a and”
New axion and hidden photon constraints from a solar data global fit (2015, background): “en found to be more restrictive for a wide range of axion masses. [53] ﬁnd a limit for the axion-photon coupling constant of g10 = 0.88 for ma .0.2eV corresponding to Φa ∼ 2.9 · 1011cm−2 · s−1 and in [86] they ﬁnd an upper limit of g10 = 2.17 for the mass range of 0.02 < ma < 0.39eV correspond”
Axion-like particles at future colliders (2018, background): “te scales like the third power of the ALP mass. Thus, light ALPs are usually long-lived and travel long distances before decaying. Experiments probing long-lived ALPs include helioscopes such as CAST [6], SUMICO [7, 8], as well as observations from the evolution of red giant stars [9{11] and the Sup”
Exploring the Role of Axions and Other WISPs in the Dark Universe (2012, background): “At larger masses, CAST has started to probe the predictions for QCD axions (yellow band) [114,115].”
Towards a new generation axion helioscope (2011, methodology): “The blue line corresponds to the current helioscope limits, dominated by CAST [79, 80] for practically all axion masses but for the ma ∼ 0.”
Hot axions and the H0 tension (2018, background): “Although this does not affect our cosmological study, the additional coupling with photons are probed by axion searches [12, 13, 16, 17, 20] and they can potentially exclude regions of the parameter space.”