The International Axion Observatory (IAXO)

TL;DR

The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a next-generation experiment designed to detect axions with significantly improved sensitivity over current methods, utilizing advanced magnet, optics, and detector technologies.

Contribution

IAXO introduces innovative magnetic, optical, and detection techniques to enhance axion search sensitivity beyond existing experiments like CAST.

Findings

Projected sensitivity exceeds current limits by 1-1.5 orders of magnitude.

Potential to detect axions related to white dwarf anomalies and relic axions.

Versatile physics case including axion-like particles and other low-energy excitations.

Abstract

The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a new generation axion helioscope aiming at a sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling of a few 10$^{12}$ GeV$^{-1}$, i.e. 1 - 1.5 orders of magnitude beyond the one currently achieved by CAST. The project relies on improvements in magnetic field volume together with extensive use of x-ray focusing optics and low background detectors, innovations already successfully tested in CAST. Additional physics cases of IAXO could include the detection of electron-coupled axions invoked to solve the white dwarfs anomaly, relic axions, and a large variety of more generic axion-like particles (ALPs) and other novel excitations at the low-energy frontier of elementary particle physics. This contribution is a summary of our paper [1] to which we refer for further details.