Feasibility Study for Measuring Geomagnetic Conversion of Solar Axions to X-rays in Low Earth Orbits

Abstract

We present a detailed computation of the expected rate for Geomagnetic Conversion of Solar Axions to X-rays (GECOSAX) along the orbit of an x-ray satellite. We use realistic satellite orbits and propagation in time. A realistic model for the Earth's magnetic field, which properly accounts for its spatial non-uniformity, is used. We also account for the effect of the Earth's atmosphere on the propagation of x-rays in our calculation of axion-photon conversion probability. To estimate possible sensitivities to the axion-photon coupling g_{aγ}, we use an actual measurement of the expected backgrounds by the SUZAKU satellite. Assuming a detector area of 10^3 cm^2 and about 10^6 s of data, we show that a 2 σlimit of g_{aγ} < (4.7-6.6) times 10^{-11} GeV^{-1} from GECOSAX is achievable, for axion masses m_a<10^{-4} eV. This significantly exceeds current laboratory sensitivities to g_{aγ}.

37 pages, 7 figures and 3 tables. Grant contract information added; no other changes

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• The Cosmological Parameters 2006
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• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
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• An improved limit on the axion-photon coupling from the CAST experiment
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Cited by in corpus (10)

• The Low-Energy Frontier of Particle Physics
• Resonant laser power build-up in ALPS -- a "light-shining-through-walls" experiment
• Axion Astrophysics
• Spectral Signatures of Photon-Particle Oscillations from Celestial Objects
• Limits on High-Frequency Gravitational Waves in Planetary Magnetospheres
• Jupiter missions as probes of dark matter
• Axion-like particle oscillations
• X-ray annual modulation observed by XMM-Newton and Axion Quark Nugget Dark Matter
• No axions from the Sun
• A Search for a Contribution from Axion-Like Particles to the X-Ray Diffuse Background Utilizing the Earth's Magnetic Field