Search for solar axions via axion-photon coupling with the Majorana Demonstrator

Abstract

Axions were originally proposed to explain the strong-CP problem in QCD. Through the axion-photon coupling, the Sun could be a major source of axions, which could be measured in solid state detection experiments with enhancements due to coherent Primakoff-Bragg scattering. The Majorana Demonstrator experiment has searched for solar axions with a set of ${}^{76}$Ge-enriched high purity germanium detectors using a 33 kg-yr exposure collected between Jan. 2017 and Nov. 2019. A temporal-energy analysis gives a new limit on the axion-photon coupling as $g_{a\gamma }<1.45\times 10^{-9}$ GeV${}^{-1}$ (95% C.I.) for axions with mass up to 100 eV/$c^2$. This improves laboratory-based limits between about 1 eV/$c^2$ and 100 eV/$c^2$.

Minor updates to match published version

References in corpus (10)

• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• Revisiting the bound on axion-photon coupling from Globular Clusters
• Bosonic super-WIMPs as keV-scale dark matter
• Redefining the Axion Window
• Solar axions cannot explain the XENON1T excess
• LEGEND-1000 Preconceptual Design Report
• Constraints on the axion-electron coupling for solar axions produced by Compton process and bremsstrahlung
• The Sanford Underground Research Facility at Homestake
• The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR Readout Electronics System
• Solar Axion Search Technique with Correlated Signals from Multiple Detectors

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Search for New Physics in Electronic Recoil Data from XENONnT
• Astrophysical Axion Bounds: The 2024 Edition
• Axion Astrophysics
• Projected WIMP sensitivity of the CDEX-50 dark matter experiment
• Exotic dark matter search with the Majorana Demonstrator
• A comprehensive calculation of the Primakoff process and the solar axion flux
• Bounds on heavy axions with an X-ray free electron laser
• Annual-modulation fingerprint of the axion wind induced sideband triplet in quantum dot spin qubit sensors
• Variable Energy X-ray Fluorescence Source