Limits on the abundance and coupling of cosmic axions

Conference · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6581756

DePanfilis, S; Melissinos, A C; Moskowitz, B E; Rogers, J T; Semertzidis, Y K; Wuensch, W U; Halama, H J; Prodell, A G; Fowler, W B; Kerns, Q

We report preliminary results from a search for galactic axions in the mass range 4.5 < m/sub a/ < 5.0 ..mu..eV. For an axion line width GAMMA/sub a/ less than or equal to 8 x 10/sup -13/ eV, we obtain the experimental limit (g/sub a..gamma gamma../m/sub a/)/sup 2/rho/sub a/ < 1.4 x 10/sup -41/. The theoretical prediction is (g/sub a..gamma gamma../m/sub a/)/sup 2/rho/sub a/ = 3.9 x 10/sup -44/ with the local galactic axion density rho/sub a/ = 300 MeV/cm/sup 3/. We have also searched for the presence of a continuous spectrum of light pseudoscalar particles; assuming that the local galactic axion density is composed of axions with masses uniformly distributed between 4.5 and 5.0 ..mu..eV, we find that g/sub a..gamma gamma../ < 2 x 10/sup -30/ MeV/sup 1/2/ cm/sup 3/2/ approx. = 10/sup 11/ GeV/sup -1/. Limits have also been set on the production of light pseudoscalar x particles; we find g/sub x..gamma gamma../ < 10/sup -24/ MeV/sup 1/2/ cm/sup 3/2/ approx. = 10/sup -5/ GeV/sup -1/ for 0< m/sub x/ less than or equal to 4..mu..eV. 20 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Rochester Univ., NY (USA). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA); Fermi National Accelerator Lab., Batavia, IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03000
• OSTI ID: 6581756
• Report Number(s): FNAL/C-87/65-E; CONF-8703121-1; ON: DE87009435
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640101* -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology-- Cosmic Radiation
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AXIONS
BOSONS
COSMIC RADIATION
COUPLING CONSTANTS
DATA
DECAY
DENSITY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY SPECTRA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
INFORMATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MASS
NOISE
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA