1. Search for a Massive Shortlived Axion in Nuclear Transitions Athans Hatzikoutelis (Advisor: Peter Paul; Nov. 15, 2003)
The Axion is the Goldstone boson that corrects the Strong CP Problem in the Standard Model.
The search for axions is continuing for 20 years.
If axion exists it can be produced in nuclear transitions of magnetic dipole character from excited states to the ground state of the 12C and 8Be nuclei.
12 C
8Be e+ e-
Axion b- g
15.1 MeV
17.6 MeV
Made by Aqans
The Giant Dipole Resonance group is searching for the axions through their decay into electron-positron pairs.
A semispherical array of 65 scintillator detectors in coincidence with 4 neutron detectors can resolve pairs.