Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Sub-Department

College of Arts and Sciences

First Advisor

Frank T. Avignone III

Second Advisor

Richard J. Creswick

Abstract

In this dissertation we report on the first search for solar axions from atomic transitions in the solar core. A search for the 14.4 keV axion from the ground state transition in 57Fe in the sun was also performed, via the axioelectric effect in TeO2 bolometers, in the CUORE-0 experiment. Both axion searches are performed in the scope of the DSFZ invisible axion model. An upper bound on the axion-electron coupling constant of gae ≤ 3.1 x 10-11 (95% CL) is obtained with 62.7 kg days of TeO2 exposure from the CUORICINO experiment. The CUORE-0 data results in a upper bound on the product of the axion-electro and effective axion-nucleon of |gae x geff aN | ≤ 1.33 x 10-17 (95% CL). Data from CUORE-0 was also used to place a bound on the half live for zero and two neutrino double beta decay of 130Te. For CUORE-0 the zero neutrino double beta decay half life bound is T0v ßß(130Te) > 2.7 x 1024 yr When combined with the data from the earlier CUORICINO experiment the bound is T0v ßß (130Te) > 4.0 x 1024 yr The two neutrino double beta decay half life of CUORE-0 was measured to be T2vßß (130Te) = 8.2 ± 0.2 (stat) ± 0.6 (syst) x 1020 yr.

Rights

© 2016, Nicholas Ivan Chott

Download

Included in

Physics Commons

Share

COinS