The X-ray Telescope of the CAST Experiment
Abstract
The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) searches for solar axions employing a 9 Tesla superconducting dipole magnet equipped with 3 independent detection systems for X-rays from axion-photon conversions inside the 10 m long magnetic field. Results of the first 6 months of data taking in 2003 imply a 95 % CL upper limit on the axion-photon coupling constant of 1.16x10(-10) GeV(-1) for axion masses < 0.02 eV. The most sensitive detector of CAST is a X-ray telescope consisting of a Wolter I type mirror system and a fully depleted pn-CCD as focal plane detector. Exploiting the full potential of background suppression by focussing X-rays emerging from the magnet bore, the axion sensitivity obtained with telescope data taken in 2004, for the first time in a controlled laboratory experiment, will supersede axion constraints derived from stellar energy loss arguments.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0511390,
title = {The X-ray Telescope of the CAST Experiment},
author = {R. Kotthaus and H. Braeuninger and P. Friedrich and R. Hartmann and D. Kang and M. Kuster and G. Lutz and L. Strueder},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0511390},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
5 pages, 9 figures