A cavity experiment to search for hidden sector photons
Abstract
We propose a cavity experiment to search for low mass extra U(1) gauge bosons with gauge-kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon, so-called paraphotons. The setup consists of two microwave cavities shielded from each other. In one cavity, paraphotons are produced via photon-paraphoton oscillations. The second, resonant, cavity is then driven by the paraphotons that permeate the shielding and reconvert into photons. This setup resembles the classic "light shining through a wall" setup. However, the high quality factors achievable for microwave cavities and the good sensitivity of microwave detectors allow for a projected sensitivity for photon-paraphoton mixing of the order of χ ∼10-12-10-8, for paraphotons with masses in the μeV to meV range-exceeding the current laboratory and astrophysics-based limits by several orders of magnitude. Therefore, this experiment bears significant discovery potential for hidden sector physics.
- Publication:
-
Physics Letters B
- Pub Date:
- January 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.physletb.2007.11.071
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0707.2063
- Bibcode:
- 2008PhLB..659..509J
- Keywords:
-
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment;
- High Energy Physics - Theory
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 5 figures