2023-06-07 ロスアラモス国立研究所(LANL)
◆アクシオンの存在は、標準模型物理学の理解や宇宙の起源と進化に深い影響を与える可能性がある。この実験は、アクシオンの探索に新たな洞察をもたらし、暗黒物質研究の進展に寄与すると期待されている。
＜関連情報＞
- https://discover.lanl.gov/news/0607-axion-particles/
- https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.095036
コヒーレントCAPTAIN-MILS実験でアクシオン粒子を検出するための展望 Prospects for detecting axionlike particles at the Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills experiment
A. A. Aguilar-Arevalo et al. (The CCM Collaboration)
Physical Review D Published 24 May 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.095036
ABSTRACT
We show results from the Coherent CAPTAIN Mills (CCM) 2019 engineering run which begin to constrain regions of parameter space for axionlike particles (ALPs) produced in electromagnetic particle showers in an 800 MeV proton beam dump, and further investigate the sensitivity of ongoing data-taking campaigns for the CCM200 upgraded detector. Based on beam-on background estimates from the engineering run, we make realistic extrapolations for background reduction based on expected shielding improvements, reduced beam width, and analysis-based techniques for background rejection. We obtain reach projections for two classes of signatures; ALPs coupled primarily to photons can be produced in the tungsten target via the Primakoff process, and then produce a gamma-ray signal in the liquid argon CCM detector either via inverse Primakoff scattering or decay to a photon pair. ALPs with significant electron couplings have several additional production mechanisms (Compton scattering, e+e− annihilation, ALP-bremsstrahlung) and detection modes (inverse Compton scattering, external e+e− pair conversion, and decay to e+e−). In some regions, the constraint is marginally better than both astrophysical and terrestrial constraints. With the beginning of a three year run, CCM will be more sensitive to this parameter space by up to an order of magnitude for both ALP-photon and ALP-electron couplings. The CCM experiment will also have sensitivity to well-motivated parameter space of QCD axion models. It is only a recent realization that accelerator-based large volume liquid argon detectors designed for low-energy coherent neutrino and dark matter scattering searches are also ideal for probing ALPs in the unexplored ∼MeV mass scale.
