Search results for "axion"
showing 10 items of 121 documents
Constraints on Spin-Dependent Short-Range Interaction between Nucleons
2013
We report on the search for a new spin-dependent P- and T-violating interaction between nucleons mediated by light, pseudoscalar bosons such as the axion which was invented to solve the strong CP problem. Our experimental approach is to use an ultra-sensitive low-field magnetometer based on the detection of free precession of co-located 3He and 129Xe nuclear spins using SQUIDs as low-noise magnetic flux detectors. In the presence of an unpolarized mass the precession frequency shif
Enhanced nuclear Schiff moment in stable and metastable nuclei
2019
Nuclei with static intrinsic octupole deformation or a soft octupole vibrational mode lead to strongly enhanced collective nuclear Schiff? moments. Interaction between electrons and these Schiff moments produce enhanced time reversal (T) and parity (P) violating electric dipole moments (EDM) in atoms and molecules. Corresponding experiments may be used to test CP-violation theories predicting T,P-violating nuclear forces and to search for axions. Nuclear octupole deformations are predicted in many short lived isotopes. This paper investigates octupole deformations in stable and very long lifetime nuclei such as 153Eu, 235U, 237Np and 227Ac, which can ease atomic experiments substantially. T…
A class of invisible axion models with FCNCs at tree level
2014
We build a class of invisible axion models with tree-level Flavor Changing Neutral Currents completely controlled by the fermion mixing matrices. The scalar sector of these models contains three-Higgs doublets and a complex scalar gauge singlet, with the same fermionic content than the Standard Model. A horizontal Peccei-Quinn symmetry provides a solution to the strong CP problem and predicts the existence of a very light and weakly coupled pseudo-Goldstone boson, the invisible axion or familon. A phenomenological analysis is performed taking into account familon searches in rare kaon and muon decays, astrophysical considerations and axion searches via axion-photon conversion. Drastic diffe…
Effective aligned 2HDM with a DFSZ-like invisible axion
2014
We discuss the possibility of having a non-minimal scalar sector at the weak scale within the framework of invisible axion models. To frame our discussion we consider an extension of the Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky invisible axion model with two additional Higgs doublets blind under the Peccei-Quinn symmetry. Due to mixing effects among the scalar fields, it is possible to obtain a rich scalar sector at the weak scale in certain decoupling limits of the theory. In particular, this framework provides an ultraviolet completion of the so-called aligned two-Higgs-doublet model and solves the strong CP problem. The axion properties and the smallness of active neutrino masses are also disc…
Spontaneous proton decay and the origin of Peccei-Quinn symmetry
2019
We propose a new interpretation of Peccei-Quinn symmetry within the Standard Model, identifying it with the axial $B + L$ symmetry i.e. $U(1)_{PQ} \equiv U(1)_{\gamma_5(B+L)}$. This new interpretation retains all the attractive features of Peccei-Quinn solution to strong CP problem but in addition also leads to several other new and interesting consequences. Owing to the identification $U(1)_{PQ} \equiv U(1)_{\gamma_5(B+L)}$ the axion also behaves like Majoron inducing small seesaw masses for neutrinos after spontaneous symmetry breaking. Another novel feature of this identification is the phenomenon of spontaneous (and also chiral) proton decay with its decay rate associated with the axion…
Implications of an axino LSP for naturalness
2014
Both the naturalness of the electroweak symmetry breaking and the resolution of the strong CP problem may require a small Higgsino mass $\mu$ generated by a realization of the DFSZ axion model. Assuming the axino is the lightest supersymmetric particle, we study its implications on $\mu$ and the axion scale. Copiously produced light Higgsinos at collider (effectively only neutral NLSP pairs) eventually decay to axinos leaving prompt multi-leptons or displaced vertices which are being looked for at the LHC. We use latest LHC7+8 results to derive current limits on $\mu$ and the axion scale. Various Higgsino-axino phenomenology is illustrated by comparing with a standard case without lightest …
Collider probes of axion-like particles.
2017
Axion-like particles (ALPs), which are gauge-singlets under the Standard Model (SM), appear in many well-motivated extensions of the SM. Describing the interactions of ALPs with SM fields by means of an effective Lagrangian, we discuss ALP decays into SM particles at one-loop order, including for the first time a calculation of the $a\to\pi\pi\pi$ decay rates for ALP masses below a few GeV. We argue that, if the ALP couples to at least some SM particles with couplings of order $(0.01-1) \mbox{TeV}^{-1}$, its mass must be above 1 MeV. Taking into account the possibility of a macroscopic ALP decay length, we show that large regions of so far unconstrained parameter space can be explored by se…
Search for eV (pseudo)scalar penetrating particles in the SPS neutrino beam
2000
We carried out a model-independent search for light scalar or pseudoscalar particles $a$'s (an example of which is the axion) that couple to two photons by using a photon-regeneration method at high energies allowing a substantial increase in the sensitivity to $eV$ masses.\ The experimental set-up is based on elements of the CERN West Area Neutrino Facility (WANF) beam line and theNOMAD neutrino detector.\ The new particles, if they exist, could be produced through the Primakoff effect in interactions of high energy photons, generated by the 450 $GeV$ protons in the CERN SPS neutrino target, with virtual photons from the WANF horn magnetic field.\ The particles would penetrate the downstre…
The strong CP problem and the solar neutrino puzzle: Are they related?
1991
We discuss the possibility that a solution of the strong CP problem via the introduction of a chiral U(1), a la Peccei-Quinn, may also provide a natural scenario for explaining the apparent depletion of the solar neutrino flux through matter enhanced neutrino oscillations. The smallness of the neutrino masses is related to the scale at which the U(1)PQ symmetry is spontaneously broken, without introducing right-handed neutrino fields and invoking the see-saw mechanism. The model is consistent with all present experimental results. In particular, the phenomenology associated to the presence of an “invisible” axion is the same as in the Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnisky model with the excepti…
Resonant detection and production of axions with atoms
2018
The axions and axion-like particles can be detected via a resonant atomic or molecular transition induced by axion absorption. The signal obtained in this process is second order in the axion-electron interaction constant and hence small. In this chapter, it is demonstrated that this signal may become first order in the axion-electron interaction constant if we allow the interference between the axion-induced transition amplitude and the transition amplitude induced by the electromagnetic radiation. Additionally, we show that the conventional scheme of producing axions from photons in a magnetic field may be improved if the field is replaced by an atomic medium in which photons scattering …