Thermal Geo-axions
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
2010-04-15 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract
We estimate the production rate of axion-type particles in the core of the Earth, at a temperature T~5000K. We constrain thermal geo-axion emission by demanding a core-cooling rate less than 100K/Gyr, as suggested by geophysics. This yields a "quasi-vacuum" (unaffected by extreme stellar conditions) bound on the axion-electron fine structure constant \alpha_a^{QV} < 10^{-18}, stronger than the existing accelerator (vacuum) bound by 4 orders of magnitude. We consider the prospects for measuring the geo-axion flux through conversion into photons in a geoscope; such measurements can further constrain \alpha_a^{QV}.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0903.0618,
title = {Thermal Geo-axions},
author = {Hooman Davoudiasl and Patrick Huber},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0903.0618},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 1 figure