New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments

Understand

Searches for pseudoscalar axion-like-particles (ALPs) typically rely on their decay in beam dumps or their conversion into photons in haloscopes and helioscopes.

• We point out a new experimental direction for ALP probes through their production via the Primakoff process or Compton-like scattering off of electrons or nuclei.
• We consider ALPs produced by the intense gamma ray flux available from megawatt-scale nuclear reactors at neutrino experiments through Primakoff-like or Compton-like channels.
• Low-threshold detectors in close proximity to the core will have visibility to ALP decays and inverse Primakoff and Compton scattering, providing sensitivity to the ALP-photon and ALP-electron couplings.