Physics Letters B (Aug 2024)
Search for axion-like particles through nuclear Primakoff production using the GlueX detector
- J.R. Pybus,
- T. Kolar,
- B. Devkota,
- P. Sharp,
- B. Yu,
- O. Hen,
- E. Piasetzky,
- S.N. Santiesteban,
- A. Schmidt,
- A. Somov,
- Y. Soreq,
- H. Szumila-Vance,
- S. Adhikari,
- C.S. Akondi,
- C. Ayerbe Gayoso,
- V.V. Berdnikov,
- H. Bhatt,
- D. Bhetuwal,
- M.M. Dalton,
- A. Deur,
- R. Dotel,
- C. Fanelli,
- J. Guo,
- T.J. Hague,
- D.W. Higinbotham,
- N.D. Hoffman,
- P. Hurck,
- I. Jaegle,
- A. Karki,
- W. Li,
- V. Lyubovitskij,
- H. Marukyan,
- M.D. McCaughan,
- M.E. McCracken,
- S. Oresic,
- Z. Papandreou,
- C. Paudel,
- S. Ratliff,
- E.M. Seroka,
- S. Somov,
- I. Strakovsky,
- K. Suresh,
- A. Thiel,
- B. Zihlmann
Affiliations
- J.R. Pybus
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Corresponding author.
- T. Kolar
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
- B. Devkota
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
- P. Sharp
- The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 20052, USA
- B. Yu
- Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
- O. Hen
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- E. Piasetzky
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
- S.N. Santiesteban
- University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
- A. Schmidt
- The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 20052, USA
- A. Somov
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- Y. Soreq
- Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
- H. Szumila-Vance
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- S. Adhikari
- Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
- C.S. Akondi
- Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
- C. Ayerbe Gayoso
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
- V.V. Berdnikov
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- H. Bhatt
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
- D. Bhetuwal
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
- M.M. Dalton
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- A. Deur
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- R. Dotel
- Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
- C. Fanelli
- The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23185, USA; Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- J. Guo
- Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
- T.J. Hague
- North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
- D.W. Higinbotham
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- N.D. Hoffman
- Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
- P. Hurck
- University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, United Kingdom
- I. Jaegle
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- A. Karki
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
- W. Li
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; CFNS, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
- V. Lyubovitskij
- Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia; Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
- H. Marukyan
- A. I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute), Yerevan 0036, Armenia
- M.D. McCaughan
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- M.E. McCracken
- Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PA 15301, USA
- S. Oresic
- University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
- Z. Papandreou
- University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
- C. Paudel
- Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
- S. Ratliff
- The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 20052, USA
- E.M. Seroka
- The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 20052, USA
- S. Somov
- National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow 115409, Russia
- I. Strakovsky
- The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 20052, USA
- K. Suresh
- University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada
- A. Thiel
- Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, University of Bonn, Germany
- B. Zihlmann
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA 23606, USA
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 855
p. 138790
Abstract
We report on the results of the first search for the production of axion-like particles (ALPs) via Primakoff production on nuclear targets, γA→aA, in the “SRC-CT” experiment using the GlueX detector at Jefferson Lab. This search uses an integrated luminosity of 100 pb⋅−1nucleon on a 12C target with a real photon beam of energies 6<Eγ<10.8 GeV, and explores the mass region of 200<ma<450 MeV via the decay a→γγ. This mass range is between the π0 and η meson masses, which enables the use of the measured η meson production rate to obtain absolute bounds on the ALP production with reduced sensitivity to experimental luminosity and detection efficiency. We find no evidence for an ALP, consistent with previous searches in the quoted mass range, and present limits on the effective photon coupling scale of O(1TeV−1). We further find that the ALP production limit we obtain is hindered by the peaking structure of the non-target-related dominant background the in GlueX spectrometer, which we treat by using data on 4He to estimate and subtract it. We comment on how this search can be improved in a future higher-statistics dedicated measurement.
