Searches for Axion-Like Particles (ALP) using reactor, proton beam and radioactive sources

The main quest of particle physicist is to search for the hidden particles which occupies more than 25% energy budget of the universe, 5 times more than the normal matter which only contributes 5% to the energy budget. Those hidden particles are called Dark Matter. One of the promising candidates for dark matter are Axion like particles (ALP). Axion is a hypothetical elementary particle arising from quantizing CP symmetry (charge conjugation parity) conserving field of the strong interaction. Axion having very low interaction cross-section with standard model particle make it suitable candidate for dark matter.

Searches for ALPs typically rely on their decay to photons. And we have built a 100Kg CsI (Tl) (Thallium doped Cesium Iodide) scintillation detector which can capture the photons and will help in search for the ALPs. In this presentation I will discuss about the work done by the previous graduate student which was search for ALPs from high energy gamma flux originated from the reactor. I will present my research which is based on the ALP producing from the gamma coming from Na22 radioactive source. I will also talk about the future use of this detector at LANL using a proton beam environment. The Interaction strength for gamma-ALP decay is very low, but by placing the detector near very high gamma fluxes we are making sure that we are not limited by statistics and we may encounter axion signals.