New Directions for Axionlike Particle Searches Combining Nuclear Reactors and Haloscopes

Abstract

In this Letter, we propose reactoscope, a novel experimental setup for axionlike particle (ALP) searches. Nuclear reactors produce a copious number of photons, a fraction of which could convert into ALPs via Primakoff process in the reactor core. The generated flux of ALPs leaves the nuclear power plant and its passage through a region with a strong magnetic field results in the efficient conversion to photons that can be detected. Such magnetic field is the key component of axion haloscope experiments. Adjacent nuclear reactor and axion haloscope experiments exist in Grenoble, France. There, the Institut Laue-Langevin research reactor is situated only ∼700  m from GrAHal, the axion haloscope platform designed to offer several volume and magnetic field (up to 43 T) configurations. We derive sensitivity projections for photophilic ALP searches with the institute and GrAHal, and also scrutinize analogous realizations, such as the one comprising the Axion Solar Telescope experiment at CERN and the Bugey nuclear power plant. The results that we obtain complement and extend the reach of existing laboratory experiments, e.g., the light-shining-through-walls experiment. While the derived sensitivities are not competitive when compared to the astrophysical limits, our analysis is free from the assumptions associated with those limits. Published by the American Physical Society 2024