Experimental Search for Solar Axions via Coherent Primakoff Conversion in a Germanium Spectrometer

SOLAX Collaboration; F. T. Avignone, III; D. Abriola; R. L. Brodzinski; J. I. Collar; R. J. Creswick; D. E. DiGregorio; H. A. Farach; A. O. Gattone; C. K. Guérard; F. Hasenbalg; H. Huck; H. S. Miley; A. Morales; J. Morales; S. Nussinov; A. Ortiz de Solórzano; J. H. Reeves; J. A. Villar; K. Zioutas

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.5068

Experimental Search for Solar Axions via Coherent Primakoff Conversion in a Germanium Spectrometer

F. T. Avignone, III, D. Abriola, R. L. Brodzinski, J. I. Collar, R. J. Creswick, D. E. DiGregorio, H. A. Farach, A. O. Gattone, C. K. Guérard, F. Hasenbalg, H. Huck, H. S. Miley, A. Morales, J. Morales, S. Nussinov, A. Ortiz de Solórzano, J. H. Reeves, J. A. Villar, and K. Zioutas (SOLAX Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5068 – Published 7 December 1998

Abstract

Results are reported of an experimental search for the unique, rapidly varying temporal pattern of solar axions coherently converting into photons via the Primakoff effect in a single crystal germanium detector when axions are incident at a Bragg angle with a crystalline plane. The analysis of 1.94 kg yr of data from the 1 kg DEMOS detector in Sierra Grande, Argentina, yields a new laboratory bound by an axion-photon coupling of $g_{a γ γ} < 2.7 \times 10^{- 9} {GeV}^{- 1}$ , independent of axion mass up to $\sim 1 keV$ .

Received 17 June 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.5068

Authors & Affiliations

F. T. Avignone, III¹, D. Abriola², R. L. Brodzinski³, J. I. Collar⁴, R. J. Creswick¹, D. E. DiGregorio², H. A. Farach¹, A. O. Gattone², C. K. Guérard^1,2, F. Hasenbalg², H. Huck², H. S. Miley³, A. Morales⁵, J. Morales⁵, S. Nussinov⁶, A. Ortiz de Solórzano⁵, J. H. Reeves³, J. A. Villar⁵, and K. Zioutas⁷ (SOLAX Collaboration)

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
²Department of Physics, TANDAR Laboratory, C.N.E.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina
³Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352
⁴CERN, CH-1211 Geneva, 23 Switzerland
⁵Laboratorio de Física Nuclear y Altas Energias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
⁶Department of Physics, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
⁷Department of Physics, University of Thessaloniki, GR54006 Thessaloniki, Greece