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.

6 pages, 4 figures. Version accepted by PRL

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• 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