First Constraints on Heavy QCD Axions with a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber using the ArgoNeuT Experiment

Abstract

We present the results of a search for heavy QCD axions performed by the ArgoNeuT experiment at Fermilab. We search for heavy axions produced in the NuMI neutrino beam target and absorber decaying into dimuon pairs, which can be identified using the unique capabilities of ArgoNeuT and the MINOS near detector. This decay channel is motivated by a broad class of heavy QCD axion models that address the strong CP and axion quality problems with axion masses above the dimuon threshold. We obtain new constraints at a 95\% confidence level for heavy axions in the previously unexplored mass range between 0.2-0.9 GeV, for axion decay constants around tens of TeV.

arXiv comment6 pages, 4 figures. Version accepted by PRL

References in corpus (43)

• An Introduction to PYTHIA 8.2
• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• The GENIE Neutrino Monte Carlo Generator
• Measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron
• Completing Natural Inflation
• A Revised Experimental Upper Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• Collider Probes of Axion-Like Particles
• Reduced Limit on the Permanent Electric Dipole Moment of ${}^{199}$Hg
• The magnetized steel and scintillator calorimeters of the MINOS experiment
• A Clockwork Axion
• The NuMI Neutrino Beam
• The QCD Running Coupling
• Dark Matter through the Axion Portal
• Design, Calibration, and Performance of the MINERvA Detector
• Strong CP problem and mirror world: the Weinberg Wilczek axion revisited
• Grand unification and heavy axion
• Neutrino Flux Predictions for the NuMI Beam
• The ArgoNeuT Detector in the NuMI Low-Energy beam line at Fermilab
• Search for hidden-sector bosons in $B^0\to K^{\ast 0}{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ decays
• Anomalous solutions to the strong CP problem
• Measurement of the very rare $K^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}\nu \bar{\nu }$ decay
• Coupling QCD-scale axion-like particles to gluons
• Factoring the Strong CP Problem
• A Model of Visible QCD Axion
• The High Quality QCD Axion and the LHC
• Neutrino and Antineutrino Inclusive Charged-current Cross Section Measurements with the MINOS Near Detector
• A Visible QCD Axion from an Enlarged Color Group
• First Measurements of Inclusive Muon Neutrino Charged Current Differential Cross Sections on Argon
• Baryon axial currents
• Heavy Axion Opportunities at the DUNE Near Detector
• The Axion Mass from 5D Small Instantons
• Measurements of Inclusive Muon Neutrino and Antineutrino Charged Current Differential Cross Sections on Argon in the NuMI Antineutrino Beam
• On the interplay between astrophysical and laboratory probes of MeV-scale axion-like particles
• Challenges for an axion explanation of the muon $g-2$ measurement
• Searches for Lepton Number Violation and Resonances in $K^{\pm }\to \pi \mu \mu$ Decays
• Challenges for heavy QCD axion inflation
• Measurement of Charged Pion Production Yields off the NuMI Target
• New constraints on tau-coupled Heavy Neutral Leptons with masses $m_N=280-970$ MeV
• First measurement of the cross section for ${\nu }_{\mu }$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }$ induced single charged pion production on argon using ArgoNeuT
• Enhancing Searches for Heavy QCD Axions via Dimuon Final States
• Analysis of a Large Sample of Neutrino-Induced Muons with the ArgoNeuT Detector
• Axiogenesis with a Heavy QCD Axion
• Study of B Meson Decays with Excited eta and eta' Mesons

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Sensitivity to Kaon Decays to ALPs at Fixed Target Experiments
• Search for a Hidden Sector Scalar from Kaon Decay in the Di-Muon Final State at ICARUS
• Improving the potential of BDF@SPS to search for new physics with liquid argon time projection chambers
• Searching for axions with kaon decay at rest
• New Bounds on Heavy QCD Axions from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Search for the production of Higgs-portal scalar bosons in the NuMI beam using the MicroBooNE detector
• nuSTORM as a Precision Probe of the Standard Model and New Physics