Search of Axions from a Nuclear Power Reactor with a High-Purity Germanium Detector

Abstract

A search of axions produced in nuclear transitions was performed at the Kuo-Sheng Nuclear Power Station with a high-purity germanium detector of mass 1.06 kg at a distance of 28 m from the 2.9 GW reactor core. The expected experimental signatures were mono-energetic lines produced by their Primakoff or Compton conversions at the detector. Based on 459.0/96.3 days of Reactor ON/OFF data, no evidence of axion emissions were observed and constraints on the couplings $\gagg$ and $\gaee$ versus axion mass $m_a$ within the framework of invisible axion models were placed. The KSVZ and DFSZ models can be excluded for 10^4 eV < m_a < 10^6 ~eV. Model-independent constraints on \gagg \gv1 < 7.7 X 10^{-9} GeV^{-2} for m_{a} < 10^5 eV and \gaee \gv1 < 1.3 X 10^{-10} for m_{a} < 10^6 eV at 90% confidence level were derived. This experimental approach provides a unique probe for axion mass at the keV--MeV range not accessible to the other techniques.

9 pages, 4 tables, 8 figures, V2: major expansion from V1

References in corpus (1)

• Search of Neutrino Magnetic Moments with a High-Purity Germanium Detector at the Kuo-Sheng Nuclear Power Station

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Constraining the Axion-Photon Coupling with Massive Stars
• New limits on spin-independent and spin-dependent couplings of low-mass WIMP dark matter with a germanium detector at a threshold of 220 eV
• Search for Solar Axions Produced in $p(d,{}^3\mathrm{He})\mathrm{A}$ Reaction with Borexino Detector
• Constraints on the axion-electron coupling for solar axions produced by Compton process and bremsstrahlung
• Ultra-Low-Energy Germanium Detector for Neutrino-Nucleus Coherent Scattering and Dark Matter Searches
• Axions: From Magnetars and Neutron Star Mergers to Beam Dumps and BECs
• New searches at the reactor experiments based on the dark axion portal
• Prospects for detecting axionlike particles at the Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills experiment
• Probing high-energy solar axion flux with a large scintillation neutrino detector
• Constraints on Scalar-Pseudoscalar and Tensorial Non-Standard Interaction and Tensorial Unparticle Couplings from Neutrino-Electron Scattering
• Axion-Like Particle Production at Beam Dump Experiments with Distinct Nuclear Excitation Lines
• Solar Axion Search Technique with Correlated Signals from Multiple Detectors
• Gamma Ray Signals from Cosmic Ray Scattering on Axion-Like Particles
• Axion emission from nuclear magnetic dipole transitions
• PASSAT at Future Neutrino Experiments: Hybrid Beam-Dump-Helioscope Facilities to Probe Light Axion-Like Particles
• Search for axioelectric effect of solar axions using BGO scintillating bolometer
• Generation and search of axion-like light particle using intense crystalline field
• Axionlike particles searches in reactor experiments
• New Constraints on Axion-Like Particles with the NEON Detector at a Nuclear Reactor
• Prospects of cold dark matter searches with an ultra-low-energy germanium detector
• Production and Decay of the Ge73-m Metastable State in a Low-Background Germanium Detector
• Constraints on millicharged particles from nuclear gamma-decays
• Unified framework for precise background modeling to enhance rare event detection at the Kuo-Sheng nuclear reactor laboratory
• Searching for exotic scalars at fusion reactors