Constraining solar hidden photons using HPGe detector

TL;DR

This study searches for hidden photons emitted by the Sun using a high-purity germanium detector, setting new constraints on their kinetic mixing and mass, and improving upon some previous experimental bounds.

Contribution

First experimental constraints on solar hidden photons using HPGe detector, accounting for photon refraction and damping effects in the Sun and detector.

Findings

Excluded hidden photons with kinetic couplings chi > (2.2 x 10^{-13}- 3 x 10^{-7})

Set constraints on hidden photon mass from 0.2 eV to 30 keV

Constraints are comparable or better than some previous experiments like CAST

Abstract

In this Letter we report on the results of our search for photons from a U(1) gauge factor in the hidden sector of the full theory. With our experimental setup we observe the single spectrum in a HPGe detector arising as a result of the photoelectric-like absorption of hidden photons emitted from the Sun on germanium atoms inside the detector. The main ingredient of the theory used in our analysis, a severely constrained kinetic mixing from the two U(1) gauge factors and massive hidden photons, entails both photon into hidden state oscillations and a minuscule coupling of hidden photons to visible matter, of which the latter our experimental setup has been designed to observe. On a theoretical side, full account was taken of the effects of refraction and damping of photons while propagating in Sun's interior as well as in the detector. We exclude hidden photons with kinetic couplings chi > (2.2 x 10^{-13}- 3 x 10^{-7}) in the mass region 0.2 eV < m_gamma' < 30 keV. Our constraints on the mixing parameter chi in the mass region from 20 eV up to 15 keV prove even slightly better then those obtained recently by using data from the CAST experiment, albeit still somewhat weaker than those obtained from solar and HB stars lifetime arguments.