
pmid: 17155238
arXiv: hep-ph/0509293
We show that solar axion conversion to photons in the Earth's magnetosphere can produce an x-ray flux, with average energy \sim 4 keV, which is measurable on the dark side of the Earth. The smallness of the Earth's magnetic field is compensated by a large magnetized volume. For axion masses < 10^{-4} eV, a low-Earth-orbit x-ray detector with an effective area of 10^4 cm^2, pointed at the solar core, can probe the photon-axion coupling down to 10^{-11} GeV^{-1}, in one year. Thus, the sensitivity of this new approach will be an order of magnitude beyond current laboratory limits.
3 pages, 1 figure, typos corrected, references added
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph), Astrophysics (astro-ph), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, High Energy Physics - Experiment
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph), Astrophysics (astro-ph), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, High Energy Physics - Experiment
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