Related papers: Shining light through the Sun

It has recently been observed that solar spicules covering almost of all solar surface have strong magnetic field $B\sim 10^2$G. They are supposed to be plasma jets emitted from chromosphere and they arrive up to $\sim 10^4$km. Their…

A search for solar axions has been performed using an axion helioscope which is equipped with a 2.3m-long 4T superconducting magnet, a gas container to hold dispersion-matching gas, PIN-photodiode X-ray detectors, and a telescope mount…

In the first week of December 2009, the blazar 3C 454.3 became the brightest high energy source in the sky. Its photon flux reached and surpassed the level of 1e-5 ph/cm2/s above 100 MeV. The Swift satellite observed the source several…

We have studied published data from the Yohkoh solar X-ray mission, with the purpose of searching for signals from radiative decays of new, as yet undiscovered massive neutral particles. This search is based on the prediction that solar…

A light pseudoscalar coupled to two photons would be copiously emitted by the core of a supernova and part of this flux would be converted to gamma-rays by the galactic magnetic field. Measurements on the SN1987A gamma-ray flux by the…

Weakly coupled, almost massless, spin 0 particles have been predicted by many extensions of the standard model of particle physics. Recently, the PVLAS group observed a rotation of polarization of electromagnetic waves in vacuum in the…

Hypothetical axion-like particles with a two-photon interaction would be produced in the Sun by the Primakoff process. In a laboratory magnetic field (``axion helioscope'') they would be transformed into X-rays with energies of a few keV.…

The Cern Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) is in operation and taking data since 2003. The main objective of the CAST experiment is to search for a hypothetical pseudoscalar boson, the axion, which might be produced in the core of the sun. The…

Cosmic rays reaching the atmosphere of an astrophysical object produce showers of secondary particles that may then escape into space. Here we obtain the flux of gamma rays and neutrinos of energy $E>10$ GeV emitted by the Sun, Jupiter and…

The hadronic interaction of cosmic rays with solar atmosphere can produce high energy gamma rays. The gamma-ray luminosity is correlated both with the flux of primary cosmic rays and the intensity of the solar magnetic field. The gamma rays…

Preliminary evidence of solar axions in XMM-Newton observations has quite recently been claimed by Fraser et al. as an interpretation of their detection of a seasonally-modulated excess of the X-ray background. Within such an…

The Sun is a main source of high energy neutrinos. These neutrinos appear as secondary particles after the Sun absorbs high-energy cosmic rays, that find there a low-density environment (much thinner than our atmosphere) where most…

The status of the solar axion search with the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) will be presented. Recent results obtained by the use of $^3$He as a buffer gas has allowed us to extend our sensitivity to higher axion masses than our…

The Sun may copiously produce hypothetical light particles such as axions or dark photons, a scenario which can be experimentally probed with so-called helioscopes. Here we investigate the impact of the angular and spectral distribution of…

In light-shining-through-walls experiments, axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are searched for by exposing an optically thick barrier to a laser beam. In a magnetic field, photons could convert into ALPs in front of the barrier and…

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) experiment searches for solar axions by the "helioscope" method. First results imply an upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of g_a-gamma < 1.16 x 10^-10 GeV^-1 (95% CL) for m_a < 0.02 eV, in this…

Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) have gained immense attention in searches for beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics. Experiments searching for axions leverage their predicted couplings to Standard Model (SM) particles to look for…

High-energy gamma rays are a valuable tool for studying particle acceleration and radiation in the magnetospheres of energetic pulsars. The six or more pulsars seen by CGRO/EGRET show that: the light curves usually have double-peak…

Cosmic rays in the inner solar system are subject to deflection by both the geomagnetic and interplanetary magnetic fields, and simultaneously interact with the Sun's photosphere resulting in the production of gamma rays. This phenomenon…

Axions generated thermally in the solar core can convert nearly directly to X-rays as they pass through the solar atmosphere via interaction with the magnetic field. The result of this conversion process would be a diffuse…