New Constraints on Axionlike Particles with the NEON Detector at a Nuclear Reactor
We report new constraints on axionlike particles (ALPs) using data from the NEON experiment, which features 16.7 kg of NaI(Tl) target located 23.7 m from a 2.8 GW thermal power nuclear reactor. Analyzing a total exposure of 3063 kg·day, with 1596 kg·day during reactor-on and 1467 kg·day during reactor-off periods, we compared energy spectra to search for ALP-induced signals. No significant signal was observed, enabling us to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level. These limits probe previously unexplored regions of the ALP parameter space, particularly for axion masses (m_{a}) near 1 MeV/c^{2}. For ALP-photon coupling (g_{aγ}), limits reach as low as 6.24×10^{-6} GeV^{-1} at m_{a}=3.0 MeV/c^{2}, while for ALP-electron coupling (g_{ae}), limits reach 4.95×10^{-8} at m_{a}=1.02 MeV/c^{2}. This Letter demonstrates the potential for future reactor experiments to probe unexplored ALP parameter space.
Authors
- Y. J. Ko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5055-8745)
- Doojin Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4186-4265)
- J. Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8908-0101)
- Jacopo Nava (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2842-7498)
- Byung Ju Park
- Seo Hyun Lee
- K.W. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7639-9511)
- Gordan Krnjaic (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7420-9577)
- E. J. Jeon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5942-8907)
- J.J. Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7913-4156)
- Jinyu Kim
- C. Ha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9598-8589)
- Y.D. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2471-8044)
- Byoung-Cheol Koh
- Hyunseok Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4980-9455)
- H. S. Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0444-8473)
- S.K. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0013-0775)
- In Soo Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4299-7227)
- Y. Oh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0892-3582)
- Sung Hyun Kim
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology (YE)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Seoul National University (KR)
- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KR)
- University of South Dakota (US)
- Mitchell Institute (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- ICFAI Business School (IN)
- Institute for Basic Science (KR)
- Chung-Ang University (KR)
- Texas A&M University (US)
- University of Bologna (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-05-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.201002
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.61
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- University of Chicago
- National Research Foundation
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Institute for Basic Science
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea
- Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power
- Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago
- Fermilab