Recent searches for solar axions and large extra dimensions

Abstract

We analyze the data from two recent experiments designed to search for solar axions within the context of multidimensional theories of the Kaluza-Klein type. In these experiments, axions were supposed to be emitted from the solar core, in M1 transitions between the first excited state and the ground state of 57Fe and 7Li. Because of the high multiplicity of axionic Kaluza-Klein states which couple with the strength of ordinary QCD axions, we obtain much more stringent experimental limits on the four-dimensional Peccei-Quinn breaking scale f_{PQ}, compared with the solar QCD axion limit. Specifically, for the 57Fe experiment, f_{PQ}>1x10^6 GeV in theories with two extra dimensions and a higher-dimensional gravitational scale M_H of order 100 TeV, and f_{PQ}>1x10^6 GeV in theories with three extra dimensions and M_H of order 1 TeV (to be compared with the QCD axion limit, f_{PQ}>8x10^3 GeV). For the 7Li experiment, f_{PQ}>1.4x10^5 GeV and 3.4x10^5 GeV, respectively (to be compared with the QCD axion limit, f_{PQ}>1.9x10^2 GeV). It is an interesting feature of our results that, in most cases, the obtained limit on f_{PQ} cannot be coupled with the mass of the axion, which is essentially set by the (common) radius of the extra dimensions.