THE CERN AXION SOLAR TELESCOPE (CAST): STATUS AND PROSPECTS

The CAST experiment is being mounted at CERN. It will make use of a decommissioned LHC test magnet to look for solar axions through its conversion into photons inside the magnetic field. The magnet has a field of 9 Tesla and length of 10 m and is installed in a platform which allows to move it ~8 degrees vertically and ~40 degrees horizontally. According to these numbers we expect a sensitivity in axion-photon coupling ~5 x 10^-11 GeV^-1 for axion masses m < ~10^-2 eV, and with a gas filled tube 10^-10 GeV^-1 for m < ~2 eV. The CAST experiment is being mounted at CERN. It will make use of a decommissioned LHC test magnet to look for solar axions through its conversion into photons inside the magnetic field. The magnet has a field of 9 Tesla and length of 10 m and is installed in a platform which allows to move it ~8 degrees vertically and ~40 degrees horizontally. According to these numbers we expect a sensitivity in axion-photon coupling ~5 x 10^-11 GeV^-1 for axion masses m < ~10^-2 eV, and with a gas filled tube 10^-10 GeV^-1 for m < ~2 eV.