Status report of the Tokyo axion helioscope experiment

Abstract

We have searched for solar axions with a detector which consists of a 4T x 2.3m superconducting magnet, PIN-photodiode X-ray detectors, and an altazimuth mount to track the sun. The conversion region is filled with cold helium gas which modifies the axion mass at which coherent conversion occurs. In the past measurements, axion mass from 0 to 0.27eV have been scanned. Since no positive evidence was seen, an upper limit to the axion-photon coupling constant was set to be g < 6-10E-10/GeV (95%CL) depending on the axion masses. We are now actively preparing for a new stage of the experiment aiming at one to a few eV solar axions. In this mass region, our detector might be able to check parameter regions which are preferable to the axion models.

3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to be included in the proceedings of TAUP 2007

References in corpus (3)

• Particle Dark Matter and Solar Axion Searches with a small germanium detector at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory
• Search for sub-electronvolt solar axions using coherent conversion of axions into photons in magnetic field and gas helium
• An x-ray detector using PIN photodiodes for the axion helioscope