No Arabic abstract
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.
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 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.
The CAST (CERN Axion Solar Telescope) experiment is searching for solar axions by their conversion into photons inside the magnet pipe of an LHC dipole. The analysis of the data recorded during the first phase of the experiment with vacuum in the magnet pipes has resulted in the most restrictive experimental limit on the coupling constant of axions to photons. In the second phase, CAST is operating with a buffer gas inside the magnet pipes in order to extent the sensitivity of the experiment to higher axion masses. We will present the first results on the $^{4}{rm He}$ data taking as well as the system upgrades that have been operated in the last year in order to adapt the experiment for the $^{3}{rm He}$ data taking. Expected sensitivities on the coupling constant of axions to photons will be given for the recent $^{3}{rm He}$ run just started in March 2008.
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 results of a search for solar axions from the Korea Invisible Mass Search (KIMS) experiment at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory are presented. Low-energy electron-recoil events would be produced by conversion of solar axions into electrons via the axio-electric effect in CsI(Tl) crystals. Using data from an exposure of 34,596 $rm kg cdot days$, we set a 90 % confidence level upper limit on the axion-electron coupling, $g_{ae}$, of $1.39 times 10^{-11}$ for an axion mass less than 1 keV/$rm c^2$. This limit is lower than the indirect solar neutrino bound, and fully excludes QCD axions heavier than 0.48 eV/$rm c^2$ and 140.9 eV/$rm c^2$ for the DFSZ and KSVZ models respectively.