Abstract
Reactor neutrino experiments provide a rich environment for the study of axionlike particles (ALPs). Using the intense photon flux produced in the nuclear reactor core, these experiments have the potential to probe ALPs with masses below 10 MeV. We explore the feasibility of these searches by considering ALPs produced through Primakoff and Compton-like processes as well as nuclear transitions. These particles can subsequently interact with the material of a nearby detector via inverse Primakoff and inverse Compton-like scatterings, via axio-electric absorption, or they can decay into photon or electron-positron pairs. We demonstrate that reactor-based neutrino experiments have a high potential to test ALP-photon couplings and masses, currently probed only by cosmological and astrophysical observations, thus providing complementary laboratory-based searches. We furthermore show how reactor facilities will be able to test previously unexplored regions in the ∼MeV ALP mass range and ALP-electron couplings of the order of gaee ∼ 10−8 as well as ALP-nucleon couplings of the order of {g}_{ann}^{(1)} ∼ 10−9, testing regions beyond TEXONO and Borexino limits.
Highlights
axionlike particles (ALPs) have been searched for as well in reactor experiments, motivated by theoretical arguments pointed out first by Weinberg and subsequently by Donnelly, Freedman, Lytel, Peccei and Schwartz [3, 30].1 To the best of our knowledge, Axionlike particles (ALP) reactor searches looking for various nuclear magnetic transitions were pioneered at the Bugey reactor [31], and followed by searches carried out by Zehnder and Lehmann et al in which instead ALPs were searched for in nuclear magnetic transitions of 127Ba∗ and 65Cu∗ [32, 33]
Nuclear reactor power plants produce a large amount of photons and so they are suitable sources for ALPs production
Motivated by the current CEνNS experimental program, which aims at observing CEνNS induced by reactor neutrino fluxes using various low-threshold technologies, we have analyzed the prospects for detection of ALPs in such experiments
Summary
Axionlike particles (ALP) are pseudoscalars that feebly couple to the SM particles They arise in a variety of new physics scenarios, including those related with dark matter in which the pseudoscalar mediates interactions between the dark and visible sectors [57, 58]. In terms of the decay constant and fermion masses, the couplings in the Lagrangian (2.3) are given by gaγγ α 2π. This expression combined with eq (2.4) leads to relations which can be mapped into the axion mass-coupling plane in the form of stripes whose widths depend on the UV completion accounting for the axion effective Lagrangian, namely gaγγ = 2.0 × 10−10 Caγ gaff = 1.8 × 10−7 Caf ma eV mf GeV.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
