CAST search for sub-eV mass solar axions with 3He buffer gas
Abstract
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.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1106.3919,
title = {CAST search for sub-eV mass solar axions with 3He buffer gas},
author = {M. Arik and S. Aune and K. Barth and A. Belov and S. Borghi and H. Bräuninger and G. Cantatore and J. M. Carmona and S. A. Cetin and J. I. Collar and T. Dafni and M. Davenport and C. Eleftheriadis and N. Elias and C. Ezer and G. Fanourakis and E. Ferrer-Ribas and P. Friedrich and J. Galán and J. A. García and A. Gardikiotis and E. N. Gazis and T. Geralis and I. Giomataris and S. Gninenko and H. Gómez and E. Gruber and T. Guthörl and R. Hartmann and F. Haug and M. D. Hasinoff and D. H. H. Hoffmann and F. J. Iguaz and I. G. Irastorza and J. Jacoby and K. Jakovčić and M. Karuza and K. Königsmann and R. Kotthaus and M. Krčmar and M. Kuster and B. Lakić and J. M. Laurent and A. Liolios and A. Ljubičić and V. Lozza and G. Lutz and G. Luzón and J. Morales and T. Niinikoski and A. Nordt and T. Papaevangelou and M. J. Pivovaroff and G. Raffelt and T. Rashba and H. Riege and A. Rodríguez and M. Rosu and J. Ruz and I. Savvidis and P. S. Silva and S. K. Solanki and L. Stewart and A. Tomás and M. Tsagri and K. van Bibber and T. Vafeiadis and J. Villar and J. K. Vogel and S. C. Yildiz and K. Zioutas},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.3919},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
5 pages, 2 figures, updated author list, revised arguments, results unchanged