Mopra Axion Search
Abstract
MOPS makes Mopra the most sensitive axion detector, by a factor of 40, in the mass window 132-207 ueV. I seek 44 hours of Mopra time to search for axions in the 132-207 ueV mass range with axion-to-two photon coupling constant g > 2.5e-12 GeV^-1. Axions spontaneously decay into two photons. The approximate allowable mass range of 1-10,000 ueV translates into a spectral line at an unknown frequency somewhere between 100 MHz and 1 THz. An 8 GHz bandwidth MOPS broadband spectrum with 1 mK sensitivity on a local dwarf would constrain the axion mass 40 times better than other experiments over the 132-207 ueV mass range. Particle physicists invoked the axion to resolve theory and observation in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Without the axion, QCD predicts charge separation on the neutron that has not been detected. Axions are also a candidate dark matter particle.
- Publication:
-
ATNF Proposal
- Pub Date:
- April 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007atnf.prop..824C
- Keywords:
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- Extragalactic;
- Mopra