1307.1488 (E. Armengaud et al.)

Axion searches with the EDELWEISS-II experiment    [PDF]

E. Armengaud, Q. Arnaud, C. Augier, A. Benoit, A. Benoit, L. Bergé, T. Bergmann, J. Blümer, A. Broniatowski, V. Brudanin, P. Camus, A. Cazes, B. Censier, M. Chapellier, F. Charlieux, F. Couëdo, P. Coulter, G. A. Cox, T. de Boissière, M. De Jesus, Y. Dolgorouky, A. A. Drillien, L. Dumoulin, K. Eitel, D. Filosofov, N. Fourches, J. Gascon, G. Gerbier, M. Gros, L. Hehn, S. Henry, S. Hervé, G. Heuermann, N. Holtzer, V. Humbert, A. Juillard, C. Kéfélian, M. Kleifges, H. Kluck, V. Kozlov, H. Kraus, V. A. Kudryavtsev, H. Le Sueur, M. Mancuso, C. Marrache-Kikuchi, S. Marnieros, A. Menshikov, X-F. Navick, C. Nones, E. Olivieri, P. Pari, B. Paul, M. C. Piro, O. Rigaut, M. Robinson, S. Rozov, V. Sanglard, B. Schmidt, B. Siebenborn, D. Tcherniakhovski, M. Tenconi, L. Vagneron, R. J. Walker, M. Weber, E. Yakushev, X. Zhang

We present new constraints on the couplings of axions and more generic axion-like particles using data from the EDELWEISS-II experiment. The EDELWEISS experiment, located at the Underground Laboratory of Modane, primarily aims at the direct detection of WIMPs using germanium bolometers. It is also sensitive to the low-energy electron recoils that would be induced by solar or dark matter axions. Using a total exposure of up to 448 kg.d, we searched for axion-induced electron recoils down to 2.5 keV within four scenarios involving different hypotheses on the origin and couplings of axions. We set a 95% CL limit on the coupling to photons $g_{A\gamma}<2.13\times 10^{-9}$ GeV$^{-1}$ in a mass range not fully covered by axion helioscopes. We also constrain the coupling to electrons, $g_{Ae} < 2.56\times 10^{-11}$, similar to the more indirect solar neutrino bound. Finally we place a limit on $g_{Ae}\times g_{AN}^{\rm eff}<4.70 \times 10^{-17}$, where $g_{AN}^{\rm eff}$ is the effective axion-nucleon coupling for $^{57}$Fe. Combining these results we fully exclude the mass range $0.91\,{\rm eV}View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.1488