Search for solar axions by the CERN axion solar telescope with 3He buffer gas: closing the hot dark matter gap

M Arik; S Aune; K Barth; A Belov; S Borghi; H Bräuninger; G Cantatore; J M Carmona; S A Cetin; J I Collar; E Da Riva; T Dafni; M Davenport; C Eleftheriadis; N Elias; G Fanourakis; E Ferrer-Ribas; P Friedrich; J Galán; J A García; A Gardikiotis; J G Garza; E N Gazis; T Geralis; E Georgiopoulou; I Giomataris; S Gninenko; H Gómez; M Gómez Marzoa; E Gruber; T Guthörl; R Hartmann; S Hauf; F Haug; M D Hasinoff; D H H Hoffmann; F J Iguaz; I G Irastorza; J Jacoby; K Jakovčić; M Karuza; K Königsmann; R Kotthaus; M Krčmar; M Kuster; B Lakić; P M Lang; J M Laurent; A Liolios; A Ljubičić; G Luzón; S Neff; T Niinikoski; A Nordt; T Papaevangelou; M J Pivovaroff; G Raffelt; H Riege; A Rodríguez; M Rosu; J Ruz; I Savvidis; I Shilon; P S Silva; S K Solanki; L Stewart; A Tomás; M Tsagri; K van Bibber; T Vafeiadis; J Villar; J K Vogel; S C Yildiz; K Zioutas; CAST Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091302

Search for solar axions by the CERN axion solar telescope with 3He buffer gas: closing the hot dark matter gap

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Mar 7;112(9):091302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091302. Epub 2014 Mar 4.

Authors

M Arik¹, S Aune², K Barth³, A Belov⁴, S Borghi³, H Bräuninger⁵, G Cantatore⁶, J M Carmona⁷, S A Cetin¹, J I Collar⁸, E Da Riva³, T Dafni⁷, M Davenport³, C Eleftheriadis⁹, N Elias³, G Fanourakis¹⁰, E Ferrer-Ribas², P Friedrich⁵, J Galán¹¹, J A García⁷, A Gardikiotis¹², J G Garza⁷, E N Gazis¹³, T Geralis¹⁰, E Georgiopoulou¹², I Giomataris², S Gninenko⁴, H Gómez⁷, M Gómez Marzoa³, E Gruber¹⁴, T Guthörl¹⁴, R Hartmann¹⁵, S Hauf¹⁶, F Haug³, M D Hasinoff¹⁷, D H H Hoffmann¹⁶, F J Iguaz¹¹, I G Irastorza⁷, J Jacoby¹⁸, K Jakovčić¹⁹, M Karuza⁶, K Königsmann¹⁴, R Kotthaus²⁰, M Krčmar¹⁹, M Kuster²¹, B Lakić¹⁹, P M Lang¹⁶, J M Laurent³, A Liolios⁹, A Ljubičić¹⁹, G Luzón⁷, S Neff¹⁶, T Niinikoski³, A Nordt²¹, T Papaevangelou², M J Pivovaroff²², G Raffelt²⁰, H Riege¹⁶, A Rodríguez⁷, M Rosu¹⁶, J Ruz²³, I Savvidis⁹, I Shilon²⁴, P S Silva³, S K Solanki²⁵, L Stewart³, A Tomás⁷, M Tsagri²⁶, K van Bibber²², T Vafeiadis²⁷, J Villar⁷, J K Vogel²⁸, S C Yildiz¹, K Zioutas²⁶; CAST Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ Dogus University, Istanbul, Turkey.
² IRFU, Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Saclay (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
³ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Genève, Switzerland.
⁴ Institute for Nuclear Research (INR), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany.
⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Trieste and Università di Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
⁷ Grupo de Investigación de Física Nuclear y Astropartículas, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
⁸ Enrico Fermi Institute and KICP, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, Illinois, USA.
⁹ Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹⁰ National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos", Athens, Greece.
¹¹ IRFU, Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Saclay (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette, France and Grupo de Investigación de Física Nuclear y Astropartículas, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
¹² Physics Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
¹³ National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
¹⁴ Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
¹⁵ MPI Halbleiterlabor, München, Germany.
¹⁶ Technische Universität Darmstadt, IKP, Darmstadt, Germany.
¹⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
¹⁸ Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Institut für Angewandte Physik, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
¹⁹ Rudjer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia.
²⁰ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut), München, Germany.
²¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany and Technische Universität Darmstadt, IKP, Darmstadt, Germany.
²² Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, California, USA.
²³ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Genève, Switzerland and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, California, USA.
²⁴ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Genève, Switzerland and Grupo de Investigación de Física Nuclear y Astropartículas, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
²⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany.
²⁶ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Genève, Switzerland and Physics Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
²⁷ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Genève, Switzerland and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece and Physics Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
²⁸ Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, California, USA.

PMID: 24655238
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091302

Abstract

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope has finished its search for solar axions with (3)He buffer gas, covering the search range 0.64 eV ≲ ma ≲ 1.17 eV. This closes the gap to the cosmological hot dark matter limit and actually overlaps with it. 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 gaγ ≲ 3.3 × 10(-10) GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., with the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Future direct solar axion searches will focus on increasing the sensitivity to smaller values of gaγ, for example by the currently discussed next generation helioscope International AXion Observatory.