Production and Detection
of Very Light Bosons

Shining light through walls?

Many unified theories of elementary particles predict the existence of new particles which are so light and weakly interacting with the known particles that they have escaped detection so far.

Such particles can be searched for in a light shining through walls experiment. The idea (see figure) is to send a laser beam along a transverse magnetic field. A fraction of the laser photons will transform into the new particles. The latter will propagate freely through a wall, without being absorbed, Finally, another magnetic field located on the other side of the wall can transform back some of these new particles into photons -- apparently regenerating photons out of nothing.

The Axion-Like Particle Search (ALPS) collaboration is running a photon regeneration experiment at DESY which exploits powerful solid-state lasers. This experiment has taken first data in September 2007 and is continuously improved.

Publications:

• P. Arias, D. Cadamuro, M. Goodsell, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  WISPy Cold Dark Matter,
  arXiv:1201.5902 [hep-ph]

• M. Goodsell, S. Ramos-Sanchez, A. Ringwald,
  Kinetic Mixing of U(1)s in Heterotic Orbifolds,
  arXiv:1110.6901 [hep-th], JHEP 1201 (2012) 021

• O. Baker, M. Betz, F. Caspers, J. Jaeckel, A. Lindner, A. Ringwald, Y. Semertzidis, P. Sikivie, K. Zioutas,
  Prospects for Searching Axion-like Particle Dark Matter with Dipole, Toroidal and Wiggler Magnets,
  arXiv:1110.2180 [physics.ins-det]

• S. Andreas, M.D. Goodsell, A. Ringwald,
  Dark matter and Dark Forces from a supersymmetric hidden sector,
  arXiv:1109.2869 [hep-ph]

• M. Cicoli, M. Goodsell, J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  Testing String Vacua in the Lab: From a Hidden CMB to Dark Forces in Flux Compactifications,
  arXiv:1103.3705 [hep-th], JHEP 1107 (2011) 114

• P. Arias, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Optimizing Light-Shining-through-a-Wall Experiments for Axion and other WISP Searches,
  arXiv:1009.4875 [hep-ph], Phys. Rev. D82 (2010) 115018

• S. Andreas, O. Lebedev, S. Ramos-Sanchez, A. Ringwald,
  Constraints on a very light CP-odd Higgs of the NMSSM and other axion-like particles,
  arXiv:1005.3978 [hep-ph], JHEP 1008 (2010) 003

• K. Ehret et al. [ALPS Collaboration],
  New ALPS Results on Hidden-Sector Lightweights,
  arXiv:1004.1313 [hep-ex], Phys. Lett. B689 (2010) 149

• J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  The Low-Energy Frontier of Particle Physics,
  arXiv:1002.0329 [hep-ph], Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 60 (2010) 405

• C. Burrage, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Late time CMB isotropies constrain mini-charged particles,
  arXiv:0909.0649 [astro-ph.CO], JCAP 0911 (2009) 002

• M. Goodsell, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Naturally Light Hidden Photons in LARGE Volume String Compactifications,
  arXiv:0909.0515 [hep-ph], JHEP 0911 (2009) 027

• F. Caspers, J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  Feasibility, engineering aspects and physics reach of microwave cavity experiments searching for hidden photons and axions,
  arXiv:0908.0759 [hep-ex], JINST 4 (2009) P11013

• K. Ehret, M. Frede, S. Ghazaryan, M. Hildebrandt, E.-A. Knabbe, D. Kracht, A. Lindner, J. List, T. Meier, N. Meyer, D. Notz, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald, G. Wiedemann, B. Willke [ALPS Collaboration],
  Resonant laser power build-up in ALPS - a "light-shining-through-walls" experiment -,
  arXiv:0905.4159 [physics.ins-det], Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 612 (2009) 83

• J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Hidden Laser Communications Through Matter - An application of meV-scale hidden photons,
  arXiv:0903.5300 [hep-ph], Europhys. Lett. 87 (2009) 10010

• M. Ahlers, J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  The Discovery Potential of Laser Polarization Experiments,
  arXiv:0812.3150 [hep-ph], Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 075017

• M. Ahlers, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Probing Hidden Sector Photons through the Higgs Window,
  arXiv:0807.4143 [hep-ph], Phys. Rev. D 78 (2008) 075005

• J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Signatures of a hidden cosmic microwave background,
  arXiv:0804.4157 [astro-ph], Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 131801

• M. Ahlers, H. Gies, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Laser experiments explore the hidden sector,
  arXiv:0711.4991 [hep-ph], Phys. Rev. D 77 (2008) 095001

• M. Ahlers, A. Lindner, A. Ringwald, L. Schrempp, C. Weniger,
  Alpenglow - A Signature for Chameleons in Axion-Like Particle Search Experiments,
  arXiv:0710.1555 [hep-ph], Phys. Rev. D 77 (2008) 015018

• A. Lindner, A. Ringwald,
  The low-energy frontier,
  Phys. World 20N8 (2007) 32

• J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  A Cavity Experiment to Search for Hidden Sector Photons,
  arXiv:0707.2063 [hep-ph], Phys. Lett. B659 (2008) 509

• M. Ahlers, H. Gies, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Light from the Hidden Sector,
  arXiv:0706.2836 [hep-ph], Phys. Rev. D 76 (2007) 115005

• J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  Extending the reach of axion-photon regeneration experiments towards larger masses with phase shift plates,
  arXiv:0706.0693 [hep-ph], Phys. Lett. B653 (2007) 167

• K. Ehret, M. Frede, E.-A. Knabbe, D. Kracht, A. Lindner, N. Meyer, D. Notz, A. Ringwald, G. Wiedemann,
  Production and Detection of Axion-Like Particles in a HERA Dipole Magnet - Letter-of-Intent for the ALPS experiment -,
  hep-ex/0702023

• M. Ahlers, H. Gies, J. Jaeckel, A. Ringwald,
  On the Particle Interpretation of the PVLAS Data: Neutral versus Charged Particles,
  hep-ph/0612098, Phys. Rev. D75 (2007) 035011

• J. Jaeckel, E. Masso, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald, F. Takahashi,
  The Need for Purely Laboratory-Based Axion-Like Particle Searches,
  hep-ph/0610203, Phys. Rev. D75 (2007) 013004

• Steven A. Abel, Joerg Jaeckel, Valentin V. Khoze, Andreas Ringwald,
  Illuminating the Hidden Sector of String Theory by Shining Light through a Magnetic Field,
  hep-ph/0608248, Phys. Lett. B666 (2008) 66

• U. Koetz, A. Ringwald, T. Tschentscher,
  Production and Detection of Axion-Like Particles at the VUV-FEL: Letter of Intent,
  hep-ex/0606058

• R. Rabadan, A. Ringwald, K. Sigurdson,
  Photon Regeneration from Pseudoscalars at X-ray Laser Facilities,
  hep-ph/0511103, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 110407

• A. Ringwald,
  Production and Detection of Very Light Bosons in the HERA Tunnel,
  hep-ph/0306106, Phys. Lett. B569 (2003) 51

Reviews:

• M. Schwarz, A. Lindner, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald, G. Wiedemann,
  Solar Hidden Photon Search,
  Proc. 7th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, 27 June - 1 July 2011, Mykonos, Greece
  arXiv:1111.5797 [astro-ph.IM].

• P. Arias, A. Ringwald,
  Illuminating WISPs with photons,
  Proc. PHOTON2011, 22-27 May 2011, Spa, Belgium
  arXiv:1110.2126 [hep-ph].

• J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Light shining through walls,
  arXiv:1011.3741 [hep-ph], Contemp. Phys. 52 (2011) 211

• P. Arias, J. Jaeckel, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald,
  Improving the Discovery Potential of Future Light-Shining-through-a-Wall Experiments,
  Proc. 6th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, 5-9 July 2010, Zurich University, Switzerland
  arXiv:1009.1519 [hep-ph].

• S. Andreas, A. Ringwald,
  Status of sub-GeV Hidden Particle Searches,
  Proc. 6th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, 5-9 July 2010, Zurich University, Switzerland
  arXiv:1008.4519 [hep-ph].

• A. Ringwald,
  Challenges and Opportunities for the Next Generation of Photon Regeneration Experiments,
  Proc. Axions 2010, January 15-17, 2010, Gainesville, Florida
  arXiv:1003.2339 [hep-ph].

• M. Goodsell, A. Ringwald,
  Light hidden-sector U(1)s in string compactifications,
  Proc. 9th Hellenic School on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity, Corfu 2009, Corfu, Greece
  arXiv:1002.1840 [hep-th], Fortschr. Phys. 58 (2010) 716

• A. Ringwald,
  From Axions to Other WISPs,
  Proc. 4th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, June 18-21, 2008, Hamburg, Germany
  arXiv:0810.3106 [hep-th].

• R. Battesti et al.,,
  Axion Searches in the Past, at Present, and in the Near Future,
  arXiv:0705.0615 [hep-ex]

• A. Ringwald,
  Particle Intepretations of the PVLAS Data,
  Proc. XII International Workshop on ``Neutrino Telescopes, March 6-9, 2007, Venice, Italy
  arXiv:0704.3195 [hep-ph].

• A. Ringwald,
  Photon Regeneration Plans,
  Proc. 6th International Workshop on the Identification of Dark Matter (IDM 2006), Island of Rhodes, Greece, 11--16th September, 2006
  hep-ph/0612127.

• Joerg Jaeckel, Eduard Masso, Javier Redondo, Andreas Ringwald, Fuminobu Takahashi,
  We need lab experiments to look for axion-like particles,
  Proc. Rencontres de Moriond: Contents and Structures of the Universe, La Thuile, Italy, March 18-25, 2006, .
  hep-ph/0605313.

• A. Ringwald,
  Axion interpretation of the PVLAS data?,
  Proc. Ninth International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics, TAUP 2005, Zaragoza, Spain, September 10-14, 2005,
  hep-ph/0511184, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 39 (2006) 197

• A. Ringwald,
  Fundamental Physics at an X-ray Free Electron Laser,
  Proc. Workshop on Electromagnetic Probes of Fundamental Physics, Erice, Italy, October 2001,
  hep-ph/0112254.

Recent Talks:

• Physics Case for WISP Searches with Intense Photon- and Electron-Beams,
  Trieste/I, May 2011 (48 pages).

• Weakly Interacting Slim Particles and New Experiments at the Intensity Frontier,
  Bad Honnef/D, March 2011 (55 pages).

• Hidden Photons in String Theory, in Cosmology, and in the Laboratory,
  Hamburg/D, February 2011 (27 pages).

• Physics Case for Hidden Photon Searches with ALPS, SHIPS, and HIPS,
  Hamburg/D, February 2011 (32 pages).

• Searching for ALPs and Hidden Photons with Intense Photon- and Electron-Beams,
  Dresden/D, January 2011 (40 pages).

• Searching for ALPs and other WISPs at the intensity frontier,
  Villigen/CH, December 2010 (41 pages).

• Fundamental Physics at Free Electron Lasers,
  Groningen/NL, November 2010 (40 pages).

• Searching for sub-GeV scale hidden-sector particles exploiting DESY's electron beams,
  Hamburg/D, November 2010 (13 pages).

• Sub-GeV Scale Dark Forces?!,
  Mainz/D, November 2010 (32 pages).

• New Experiments at the Intensity Frontier,
  Dortmund/D, October 2010 (18 pages).

• Ultra-Light Particles Beyond the Standard Model,
  Bad Honnef/D, October 2010 (42 pages).

• Attacking Dark Forces with Intense Electron Beams at DESY,
  Hamburg/D, March 2010 (33 pages).

• Dark Forces Attack at DESY,
  Hamburg/D, January 2010 (32 pages).

• Challenges and Opportunities for the Next-Generation of Photon Regeneration Experiments,
  Gainesville/USA, January 2010 (17 pages).

• Attacking Hidden Forces with Intense Photon- and Electron-Beams,
  Valparaiso/Chile, January 2010 (42 pages).

• Dark Forces Attack,
  Bonn/D, December 2009 (29 pages).

• Light hidden U(1)s in LARGE volume string compactifications,
  SLAC/USA, September 2009 (28 pages).

• Theory and phenomenology of hidden U(1)s from string compactifications,
  Corfu/GR, September 2009 (27 pages).

• Suche nach versteckten Teilchen,
  Heiligenstedten/D, June 2009 (28 pages).

• Shedding Light on the Hidden Sector - Particle Physics with Low-Energy Photons,
  Zeuthen/D, June 2009 (50 pages).

• Are There Ultralight Particles in the Hidden Sector? - Particle Physics with Low-Energy Photons,
  Geneva/CH, June 2009 (56 pages).

• Is There New Physics at the Milliscale? - Particle Physics with Low-Energy Photons,
  Heidelberg/D, May 2009 (57 pages).

• Kinetic mixing of hidden U(1)s with the visible U(1) in string compactifications,
  Bonn/D, April 2009 (26 pages).

• Einblick in versteckte Welten - Teilchenphysik mit niederenergetischen Photonen,
  Jena/D, January 2009 (41 pages).

PR:

• Hamburger Wissenschaftler suchen Versteckte Photonen,
  Hamburger Abendblatt, Dec 13, 2011.

• 'Light shining through walls' experiment gets a boost,
  LaserFocusWorld, Aug 01, 2009.

• `Hidden Photons' to send secret emails through Earth,
  NewScientist, April 25, 2009.

• Vergebliche Suche nach Axion-artigen Teilchen,
  NZZ, November 28, 2007.

• Results question merit of axion experiments,
  by Jon Cartwright,
  physicsworld, headline news, November 21, 2007.

• Fundamental physics re-explored in Patras,
  CERN COURIER, Faces and Places, November 20, 2007.

• Mit Laserlicht durch die Wand,
  NZZ, July 25, 2007.

• Mit dem Ersatzteil auf Teilchenjagd,
  by Christof Rührmair,
  DIE ZEIT, Nr. 23, May 31, 2007, p. 46.

• War das da eben vielleicht ein Axion?,
  by Ulf von Rauchhaupt,
  Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, February 18, 2007, p. 64.

• Axion stations,
  The Economist, December 23, 2006.

• Laser could create dark-matter particles,
  by Edwin Cartlidge, News Editor of Physics World,
  PhysicsWeb July 2006.

• Let there be axions,
  by Konstantin Zioutas,
  CERN Courier July/August 2006, pp. 19-22.

• The first axion?,
  by Steve Lamoreaux,
  Nature 44 (2006) 31, May 4, 2006.

• Accidence and substance,
  The Economist, April 6, 2006.

• Magnet Experiment Appears to Drain Life From Stars,
  by Michael Schirber,
  Science 311 (2006) 1535.