THEORY FOR THE DIRECT-DETECTION OF SOLAR AXIONS BY COHERENT PRIMAKOFFCONVERSION IN GERMANIUM DETECTORS

It is assumed that axion-like Nambu Goldstone bosons exist and are cre ated in the sun by Primakoff conversion of photons in the Coulomb fiel ds of nuclei. Detection rates are calculated in germanium detectors du e to the coherent conversion of axions to photons in the lattice when the incident angle fulfills the Bragg condition for a given crystallin e plane. The rates are correlated with the relative positions of the s un and detector yielding a definite recognizable sub-diurnal temporal pattern. A major experiment is proposed based on a large detector arra y. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.