Shining Light on Cosmogenic Axions with Neutrino Experiments

Abstract

While most searches for cosmic axions so far focused on their cold relics as (a component of) dark matter, various well-motivated cosmological sources can produce "boosted" axions that remain relativistic today. We demonstrate that existing/upcoming neutrino experiments such as Super-Kamiokande, Hyper-Kamiokande, DUNE, JUNO, and IceCube can probe such energetic axion relics. The characteristic signature is the mono-energetic single photon signal from axion absorption induced by the axion-photon coupling. This proposal offers to cover parameter ranges that are complementary to existing axion searches and provides new opportunities for discovery with neutrino facilities.

Minor revisions, references added (8 pages, 3 figures)

References in corpus (27)

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• Collider Probes of Axion-Like Particles
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• Axion-like Particles at Future Neutrino Experiments: Closing the "Cosmological Triangle"
• Axion Dark Matter eXperiment: Detailed Design and Operations
• Updated constraints on decaying cold dark matter
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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Investigating the collinear splitting effects of boosted dark matter at neutrino detectors