The X-ray Telescope of CAST

Abstract

The Cern Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) is in operation and taking data since 2003. The main objective of the CAST experiment is to search for a hypothetical pseudoscalar boson, the axion, which might be produced in the core of the sun. The basic physics process CAST is based on is the time inverted Primakoff effect, by which an axion can be converted into a detectable photon in an external electromagnetic field. The resulting X-ray photons are expected to be thermally distributed between 1 and 7 keV. The most sensitive detector system of CAST is a pn-CCD detector combined with a Wolter I type X-ray mirror system. With the X-ray telescope of CAST a background reduction of more than 2 orders off magnitude is achieved, such that for the first time the axion photon coupling constant g_agg can be probed beyond the best astrophysical constraints g_agg < 1 x 10^-10 GeV^-1.

19 pages, 25 figures and images, replaced by the revised version accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics

References in corpus (4)

• First results from the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST)
• An improved limit on the axion-photon coupling from the CAST experiment
• The Micromegas detector of the CAST experiment
• The CAST Time Projection Chamber

Cited by in corpus (35)

• New CAST Limit on the Axion-Photon Interaction
• New experimental approaches in the search for axion-like particles
• Experimental Searches for the Axion and Axion-like Particles
• An improved limit on the axion-photon coupling from the CAST experiment
• Conceptual Design of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO)
• Probing eV-scale axions with CAST
• Towards a new generation axion helioscope
• CAST search for sub-eV mass solar axions with 3He buffer gas
• CAST solar axion search with 3^He buffer gas: Closing the hot dark matter gap
• CAST constraints on the axion-electron coupling
• The Micromegas detector of the CAST experiment
• Search for 14.4 keV solar axions emitted in the M1-transition of 57Fe nuclei with CAST
• New solar axion search in CAST with ${}^4$He filling
• Axion Searches in the Past, at Present, and in the Near Future
• A Micromegas-based low-background x-ray detector coupled to a slumped-glass telescope for axion research
• Axion Astrophysics
• The CAST Time Projection Chamber
• Direct Detection of Dark Matter -- APPEC Committee Report
• IAXO - The International Axion Observatory
• Possible evidence of QCD axion stars in HSC and OGLE microlensing events
• X-ray detection with Micromegas with background levels below 10${}^{-6}$ keV${}^{-1}$cm${}^{-2}$s${}^{-1}$
• Search for solar axion emission from 7Li and D(p,gamma)3He nuclear decays with the CAST gamma-ray calorimeter
• Improved Search for Solar Chameleons with a GridPix Detector at CAST
• Axion Helioscopes as Solar Thermometers
• Generation and detection of axions using guided structures
• X-CSIT: a toolkit for simulating 2D pixel detectors
• Background studies and shielding effects for the TPC detector of the CAST experiment
• An InGrid based Low Energy X-ray Detector
• First Results on the Search for Chameleons with the KWISP Detector at CAST
• Background study for the pn-CCD detector of CERN Axion Solar Telescope
• Physics at Underground Laboratories: Direct Detection of Dark Matter
• Solar Axion search with Micromegas detectors in the CAST Experiment with ${}^3$He as buffer gas
• Axions at the meV Crossroads: Theory, Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Experiments
• The Phenomenological Motivation of Axions: A Review
• Inching toward the QCD Axions with Axion Magnetic Resonance in Helioscopes