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Gravitational lensing by the Sun of non-relativistic penetrating particles

  • Technische Universität Darmstadt
  • Goethe University Frankfurt
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • CERN

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

The flux of weakly interacting particles from celestial sources, moving with a velocity v≈0.2c, can be temporarily amplified at the site of the Earth, due to gravitational lensing effects by the Sun. The effective amplification factor can be as much as ∼103 to ∼104, for a velocity bin-width of ∼0.1%. The theoretically motivated solar Kaluza-Klein axions provide a generic example of particles with a wide velocity spectrum, filling the gap between v≈c (e.g. neutrinos) and v≈10-3c (e.g. dark matter (DM) candidates). If the putative particles come from a direction along the projected path of the Sun in the Sky, within a strip of ∼0.1° along the ecliptic, then, time windows of possible enhanced flows can be predicted. This suggestion can be implemented in the (re)-analysis of data from DM-experiments, and, it does not need any major experimental modification. In particular, performing a cross-correlation of data taken over a period more than 1 year, from the same or even also from other experiments, this can result to (un)predictable time windows of interest. Because, if burst-like events re-appear in following years in fixed dates, this will be an unambiguous identification of the cosmic origin of underground events, which were ignored before. Thus, thanks to solar gravitational effects, DM-experiments can be transformed to telescopes of penetrating non-relativistic particles with a field-of-view of ∼0.1°, or even more, along the ecliptic. The missing access to DM-data does not allow us to test this technique. We therefore suggest to the astroparticle physics community to release its data.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)73-78
Number of pages6
JournalAstroparticle Physics
Volume20
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2003
Externally publishedYes

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