ATS Seminar - Towards the detection of axions with BabyIAXO

by Igor Garcia Irastorza (Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías (CAPA) / Universidad de Zaragoza (ES))

Friday 26 Sept 2025, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Zurich

40/S2-A01 - Salle Anderson (CERN)

Speaker

Igor Garcia Irastorza - IAXO Spokesperson, Center for Astroparticles and High Energy Physics (CAPA), Universidad de Zaragoza.

 

Title

“Towards the detection of axions with BabyIAXO”

 

Axions are hypothetical particles that could solve long-standing problems in physics, including the strong CP problem or the nature of dark matter. They would be produced in large numbers by the sun, offering a unique opportunity for detection via their conversion into photons in the large magnets of “axion helioscopes”.

 

The BabyIAXO experiment will primarily follow this concept to achieve unprecedented sensitivity to solar axions. Building upon the legacy and technology pioneered by the CAST experiment at CERN, BabyIAXO employs a dedicated superconducting dipolar magnet 10 meters in length. Its two 70 cm diameter bores feature large-area X-ray telescopes with ultra-low background detectors.

 

Although initially conceived as a technology demonstrator for the future, large-scale International Axion Observatory (IAXO), BabyIAXO will operate as a fully-fledged axion helioscope, entering unexplored axion parameter space and thus already with discovery potential. Moreover, various recent studies are extending its physics case portfolio, effectively making BabyIAXO a scientific infrastructure that will also search for dark matter axions, dark photons, chameleons, gravitational waves, and axions from nearby supernova.

 

Particularly appealing is the use of large RF-cavities and sensors filling the BabyIAXO magnet bores, in order to turn BabyIAXO into an “axion haloscope” with very competitive sensitivity to relic axions, an area that might profit from modern quantum sensing developments. This presentation outlines the scientific goals, technological innovations, and current status of BabyIAXO, highlighting its potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model at the low energy frontier.

 

ATS Seminar Organisers
A. Dallocchio (EN), E. Metral (BE), M. Modena (ATS-DO), T. Stora (SY), A. Sublet (TE)

 

ATS Seminars-BabyIAXO-fin.pdf

CERN ATS seminar BabyIAXO - Irastorza.pptx