Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Can Large Scintillators Be Used For Solar-Axion Searches To Test The Cosmological Axion-Photon Oscillation Proposal?, F. T. Avignone Iii, R. J. Creswick, Shmuel Nussinov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Solar-axion interaction rates in Nal, Csl and Xe scintillators via the axio-electric effect were calculated. A table is presented with photo-electric and axio-electric cross sections, solar-axion fluxes, and the interaction rates from 2.0 to 10.0 keV. The results imply that annual-modulation data of large Nal and Csl arrays, and large Xe scintillation detectors, might be made sensitive enough to probe coupling to photons at levels required to explain axion-photon oscillation phenomena proposed to explain the survival of high-energy photons traveling cosmological distances. The DAMA/LIBRA data are used to demonstrate the power of the model-independent annual modulation due to the seasonal …