New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments
Abstract
Searches for pseudoscalar axionlike-particles (ALPs) typically rely on their decay in beam dumps or their conversion into photons in haloscopes and helioscopes. We point out a new experimental direction for ALP probes via their production by the intense gamma ray flux available from megawatt-scale nuclear reactors at neutrino experiments through Primakoff-like or Compton-like channels. Low-threshold detectors in close proximity to the core will have visibility to ALP decays and inverse Primakoff and Compton scattering, providing sensitivity to the ALP-photon and ALP-electron couplings. We find that the sensitivity to these couplings at the ongoing MINER and various other reactor based neutrino experiments, e.g., CONNIE, CONUS, $$\textit{ν}$$-cleus, etc., exceeds existing limits set by laboratory experiments and, for the ALP-electron coupling, we forecast the world’s best laboratory-based constraints over a large portion of the sub-MeV ALP mass range.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1631078
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1801961
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0010813; SC0009956; SC0018981; SC0017859; NSF PHY182080
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Volume: 124 Journal Issue: 21; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Physics
Citation Formats
Dent, James B., Dutta, Bhaskar, Kim, Doojin, Liao, Shu, Mahapatra, Rupak, Sinha, Kuver, and Thompson, Adrian. New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.211804.
Dent, James B., Dutta, Bhaskar, Kim, Doojin, Liao, Shu, Mahapatra, Rupak, Sinha, Kuver, & Thompson, Adrian. New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.211804
Dent, James B., Dutta, Bhaskar, Kim, Doojin, Liao, Shu, Mahapatra, Rupak, Sinha, Kuver, and Thompson, Adrian. Thu .
"New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.211804.
@article{osti_1631078,
title = {New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments},
author = {Dent, James B. and Dutta, Bhaskar and Kim, Doojin and Liao, Shu and Mahapatra, Rupak and Sinha, Kuver and Thompson, Adrian},
abstractNote = {Searches for pseudoscalar axionlike-particles (ALPs) typically rely on their decay in beam dumps or their conversion into photons in haloscopes and helioscopes. We point out a new experimental direction for ALP probes via their production by the intense gamma ray flux available from megawatt-scale nuclear reactors at neutrino experiments through Primakoff-like or Compton-like channels. Low-threshold detectors in close proximity to the core will have visibility to ALP decays and inverse Primakoff and Compton scattering, providing sensitivity to the ALP-photon and ALP-electron couplings. We find that the sensitivity to these couplings at the ongoing MINER and various other reactor based neutrino experiments, e.g., CONNIE, CONUS, $\textit{ν}$-cleus, etc., exceeds existing limits set by laboratory experiments and, for the ALP-electron coupling, we forecast the world’s best laboratory-based constraints over a large portion of the sub-MeV ALP mass range.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.211804},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 21,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {5}
}
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.211804
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