Detecting Axion-like Particles with Plasmon in Reactor-based Experiment

TL;DR

This paper investigates detecting axion-like particles produced in nuclear reactors using plasmon effects in silicon detectors, setting new experimental limits and projecting improved future sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel detection method for ALPs via plasmon effects in silicon detectors and provides new experimental limits based on reactor data, with projections for future experiments.

Findings

Set 90% CL upper limits on ALP-photon coupling for 0.1-100 keV mass range.

Projected sensitivity of Oscura surpasses NEON by an order of magnitude.

Expands the parameter space coverage for QCD axion and ALPs.

Abstract

Axion and axion-like particles (ALPs), predicted by various extensions of the Standard Model, can be copiously produced in nuclear reactors via the Primakoff process. In this work, we explore the detection of such relativistic ALPs through the plasmon effect in silicon detectors located near reactors. Utilizing the data from the Connie and Atucha-II experiments, we set the 90\% confidence level upper limits on the ALP-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma}$ over the mass range $0.1< m_a <100$ keV. Furthermore, we present that the projected sensitivity of the Oscura experiment, with an exposure of 30 kg$\cdot$ yr, will surpass the current reach of the NEON experiment by approximately one order of magnitude in the same mass range. This improvement would substantially expand the explored region of the QCD axion and ALP parameter space.