2014

Conceptual Design of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO)

Armengaud, E., Avignone, F. T., Betz, M. et al.

Understand

The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) will be a forth generation axion helioscope.

  • As its primary physics goal, IAXO will look for axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) originating in the Sun via the Primakoff conversion of the solar plasma photons.
  • In terms of signal-to-noise ratio, IAXO will be about 4-5 orders of magnitude more sensitive than CAST, currently the most powerful axion helioscope, reaching sensitivity to axion-photon couplings down to a few $\times 10^{-12}$ GeV$^{-1}$ and thus probing a large fraction of the currently unexplored axion and ALP parameter space.
  • IAXO will also be sensitive to solar axions produced by mechanisms mediated by the axion-electron coupling $g_{ae}$ with sensitivity $-$for the first time$-$ to values of $g_{ae}$ not previously excluded by astrophysics.

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