No Arabic abstract
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 hefour gas (Phase II) of variable pressure. The introduction of gas generated a refractive photon mass $m_gamma$, thereby achieving the maximum possible conversion rate for those axion masses ma that match $m_gamma$. 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 $gaglesssim 2.17times 10^{-10} {rm GeV}^{-1}$ at 95% CL for $ma lesssim 0.4$ 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 $f_{rm a}sim10^{7}$ GeV. Currently in the second part of CAST Phase II, we are searching for axions with masses up to about 1.2 eV using hethree as a buffer gas.
The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) has extended its search for solar axions by using 3He as a buffer gas. At T=1.8 K this allows for larger pressure settings and hence sensitivity to higher axion masses than our previous measurements with 4He. With about 1 h of data taking at each of 252 different pressure settings we have scanned the axion mass range 0.39 eV < m_a < 0.64 eV. 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 g_ag < 2.3 x 10^{-10} GeV^{-1} at 95% CL, the exact value depending on the pressure setting. KSVZ axions are excluded at the upper end of our mass range, the first time ever for any solar axion search. In future we will extend our search to m_a < 1.15 eV, comfortably overlapping with cosmological hot dark matter bounds.
We present results of the Relic Axion Dark-Matter Exploratory Setup (RADES), a detector which is part of the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST), searching for axion dark matter in the 34.67$mu$eV mass range. A radio frequency cavity consisting of 5 sub-cavities coupled by inductive irises took physics data inside the CAST dipole magnet for the first time using this filter-like haloscope geometry. An exclusion limit with a 95% credibility level on the axion-photon coupling constant of g$_{agamma}gtrsim 4times10^{-13} text{GeV}^{-1}$ over a mass range of 34.6738 $mu$eV < $m_a$ < 34.6771 $mu$eV is set. This constitutes a significant improvement over the current strongest limit set by CAST at this mass and is at the same time one of the most sensitive direct searches for an axion dark matter candidate above the mass of 25 $mu$eV. The results also demonstrate the feasibility of exploring a wider mass range around the value probed by CAST-RADES in this work using similar coherent resonant cavities.
We have started the development of a detector system, sensitive to single photons in the eV energy range, to be suitably coupled to one of the CAST magnet ports. This system should open to CAST a window on possible detection of low energy Axion Like Particles emitted by the sun. Preliminary tests have involved a cooled photomultiplier tube coupled to the CAST magnet via a Galileian telescope and a switched 40 m long optical fiber. This system has reached the limit background level of the detector alone in ideal conditions, and two solar tracking runs have been performed with it at CAST. Such a measurement has never been done before with an axion helioscope. We will present results from these runs and briefly discuss future detector developments.
We have searched for 14.4 keV solar axions or more general axion-like particles (ALPs), that may be emitted in the M1 nuclear transition of 57Fe, by using the axion-to-photon conversion in the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) with evacuated magnet bores (Phase I). From the absence of excess of the monoenergetic X-rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun, we set model-independent constraints on the coupling constants of pseudoscalar particles that couple to two photons and to a nucleon g_{agamma} |-1.19 g_{aN}^{0}+g_{aN}^{3}|<1.36times 10^{-16} GeV^{-1} for m_{a}<0.03 eV at the 95% confidence level.
If light hidden sector photons exist, they could be produced through kinetic mixing with solar photons in the eV energy range. We propose to search for this hypothetical hidden photon flux with the Super-Kamiokande and/or upgraded CAST detectors. The proposed experiments are sensitive to mixing strengths as small as 10^-9 for hidden photon masses in the sub eV region and, in the case of non-observation, would improve limits recently obtained from photon regeneration laser experiments in this mass region.