Exploring the Sun's core with BabyIAXO

TL;DR

This paper discusses the BabyIAXO project, an intermediate step towards the full IAXO helioscope, aiming to improve the search for solar axions and ALPs, which are potential dark matter candidates produced in the Sun's core.

Contribution

It introduces BabyIAXO as a new experimental stage to enhance solar axion and ALP detection capabilities within the IAXO project.

Findings

Review of astrophysical hints for axions and ALPs

Projected sensitivity improvements with BabyIAXO

Potential to explore new physics models related to dark matter

Abstract

Axions are a natural consequence of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, the most compelling solution to the strong-CP problem. Similar axion-like particles (ALPs) also appear in a number of possible extensions of the Standard Model, notably in string theories. Both, axions and ALPs, are very well motivated candidates for Dark Matter (DM), and they would be copiously produced at the suns core. A relevant effort during the last two decades has been the CAST experiment at CERN, the most sensitive axion helioscope to date. The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a large-scale 4th generation helioscope, and its primary physics goal is to extend further the search for solar axions or ALPs with a final signal to background ratio of about 5 orders of magnitude higher. We briefly review here the astrophysical hints and models that will be at reach while searching for solar axions within the context of the IAXO helioscope search program, and in particular the physics under reach for BabyIAXO, an intermediate helioscope stage towards the full IAXO.