The International Axion Observatory (IAXO)

The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a new generation axion helioscope aiming at a sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling of g(alpha gamma) >~ few x 10-12 GeV**-1}, i.e. 1 - 1.5 orders of magnitude beyond the one currently achieved by CAST. The project relies on improvements in magnetic field volume together with extensive use of x-ray focusing optics and low background detectors, innovations already successfully tested in CAST. Additional physics cases of IAXO could include the detection of electron-coupled axions invoked to explain the white dwarf cooling, relic axions, and a large variety of more generic axion-like particles (ALPs) and other novel excitations at the low-energy frontier of elementary particle physics. This contribution is a summary of our recent paper \cite{Irastorza:2011gs}.
Proc. of Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, 98 - 101; DESY-PROC-2011-04; ISSN 1435-8077