61 research outputs found
Thissavros Hydropower Plant Managing Geotechnical Problems in the Construction
The Thissavros hydropower and pumped storage project on the Nestos river in northern Greece involved construction of a 172 m high rockfill dam and an underground power house with 300 MW installed capacity. Bedrock at the site consists of gneiss with complex geological structure and complicated hydrogeological conditions. On the right abutment, the dam partially rests on a large landslide and the toe of another large landslide extends into the plunge pool from the left bank. Initial excavations activated the dormant slides. Unloading, buttressing and drainage successfully stabilized the landslides. Core material for the dam is a silty sand and required special precautions in design and construction. Starting with an extremely rapid reservoir filling the dam has performed highly satisfactorily. The power house had to be excavated in a relatively unfavorable geological orientation but application of structural discontinuity analysis avoided wedge failures
Search for chameleons with CAST
In this work we present a search for (solar) chameleons with the CERN Axion
Solar Telescope (CAST). This novel experimental technique, in the field of dark
energy research, exploits both the chameleon coupling to matter () and to photons () via the Primakoff effect. By reducing
the X-ray detection energy threshold used for axions from 1keV to 400eV
CAST became sensitive to the converted solar chameleon spectrum which peaks
around 600eV. Even though we have not observed any excess above background,
we can provide a 95% C.L. limit for the coupling strength of chameleons to
photons of for .Comment: 8 pages, 12 figure
Axion Searches with Helioscopes and astrophysical signatures for axion(-like) particles
The first part reviews the working mechanisms, capabilities and performance
of axion helioscopes, including the achieved results so far. The 2nd part is
observationally driven. New simulation results obtained with the Geant4 code
reconstruct spectral shape of solar X-ray spectra, and their isotropic emission
and lateral size. The derived rst mass of the axion(-like) particles is ~10meV.
The axion interaction with magnetic field gradient is a generic theoretical
suggestion that could reconcile present limits with relevant solar X-ray
activity. A short outlook of the experimentally expanding solar axion field is
given.Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures. Aded 1 author, updated references. Accepted for
the special issue of NJP on dark matter (July 2009
New CAST limit on the axion-photon interaction
Hypothetical low-mass particles, such as axions, provide a compelling explanation for the dark matter in the universe. Such particles are expected to emerge abundantly from the hot interior of stars. To test this prediction, the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) uses a 9 T refurbished Large Hadron Collider test magnet directed towards the Sun. In the strong magnetic field, solar axions can be converted to X-ray photons which can be recorded by X-ray detectors. In the 2013-2015 run, thanks to low-background detectors and a new X-ray telescope, the signal-to-noise ratio was increased by about a factor of three. Here, we report the best limit on the axion-photon coupling strength (0.66 × 10 -10 GeV -1 at 95% confidence level) set by CAST, which now reaches similar levels to the most restrictive astrophysical bounds
Search for Dark Matter Axions with CAST-CAPP
The CAST-CAPP axion haloscope, operating at CERN inside the CAST dipole
magnet, has searched for axions in the 19.74 eV to 22.47 eV mass
range. The detection concept follows the Sikivie haloscope principle, where
Dark Matter axions convert into photons within a resonator immersed in a
magnetic field. The CAST-CAPP resonator is an array of four individual
rectangular cavities inserted in a strong dipole magnet, phase-matched to
maximize the detection sensitivity. Here we report on the data acquired for
4124 h from 2019 to 2021. Each cavity is equipped with a fast frequency tuning
mechanism of 10 MHz/min between 4.774 GHz and 5.434 GHz. In the present work,
we exclude axion-photon couplings for virialized galactic axions down to
at the 90% confidence
level. The here implemented phase-matching technique also allows for future
large-scale upgrades.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, Published version available with Open Access at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33913-
Improved search for solar chameleons with a GridPix detector at CAST
We report on a new search for solar chameleons with the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST). A GridPix detector was used to search for soft X-ray photons in the energy range from 200 eV to 10 keV from converted solar chameleons. No significant excess over the expected background has been observed in the data taken in 2014 and 2015. We set an improved limit on the chameleon photon coupling, beta(gamma) less than or similar to 5.7 x 10(10) for 1 < beta(m) < 10(6) at 95% C.L. improving our previous results by a factor two and for the first time reaching sensitivity below the solar luminosity bound for tachocline magnetic fields up to 12.5 T
Tests of chameleon gravity
Theories of modified gravity, where light scalars with non-trivial self-interactions and non-minimal couplings to matter—chameleon and symmetron theories—dynamically suppress deviations from general relativity in the solar system. On other scales, the environmental nature of the screening means that such scalars may be relevant. The highly-nonlinear nature of screening mechanisms means that they evade classical fifth-force searches, and there has been an intense effort towards designing new and novel tests to probe them, both in the laboratory and using astrophysical objects, and by reinterpreting existing datasets. The results of these searches are often presented using different parametrizations, which can make it difficult to compare constraints coming from different probes. The purpose of this review is to summarize the present state-of-the-art searches for screened scalars coupled to matter, and to translate the current bounds into a single parametrization to survey the state of the models. Presently, commonly studied chameleon models are well-constrained but less commonly studied models have large regions of parameter space that are still viable. Symmetron models are constrained well by astrophysical and laboratory tests, but there is a desert separating the two scales where the model is unconstrained. The coupling of chameleons to photons is tightly constrained but the symmetron coupling has yet to be explored. We also summarize the current bounds on f(R) models that exhibit the chameleon mechanism (Hu and Sawicki models). The simplest of these are well constrained by astrophysical probes, but there are currently few reported bounds for theories with higher powers of R. The review ends by discussing the future prospects for constraining screened modified gravity models further using upcoming and planned experiments
Towards a medium-scale axion helioscope and haloscope
We discuss the physics case for and the concept of a medium-scale axion helioscope with sensitivities in the axion-photon coupling a few times better than CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST). Search for an axion-like particle with these couplings is motivated by several persistent astrophysical anomalies. We present early conceptual design, existing infrastructure, projected sensitivity and timeline of such a helioscope (Troitsk Axion Solar Telescope Experiment, TASTE) to be constructed in the Institute for Nuclear Research, Troitsk, Russia. The proposed instrument may be also used for the search of dark-matter halo axions
Electric dipole moments and the search for new physics
Static electric dipole moments of nondegenerate systems probe mass scales for
physics beyond the Standard Model well beyond those reached directly at high
energy colliders. Discrimination between different physics models, however,
requires complementary searches in atomic-molecular-and-optical, nuclear and
particle physics. In this report, we discuss the current status and prospects
in the near future for a compelling suite of such experiments, along with
developments needed in the encompassing theoretical framework.Comment: Contribution to Snowmass 2021; updated with community edits and
endorsement
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