Search for solar axions with the Time Projection Chamber of the CERN Axion Solar Telescope with 4-Helium as buffer gas

CAST (CERN Axion Solar Telescope) is a helioscope looking for axions coming from the solar core to the Earth. The experiment, located at CERN, is based on the Primakoff effect and uses a magnetic field of 9 Tesla provided by a decommissioned LHC magnet. CAST is able to follow the Sun during sunrise and sunset and, therefore, different X-ray detectors are mounted on both ends of the magnet waiting for a photon from axion-to-photon conversion due to the Primakoff effect. During its First Phase, which concluded in 2004, the TPC detector of CAST looked for axions with masses up to 0.02 eV. By using a Helium-4 buffer gas, CAST's TPC detector has been able to re-establish the coherence needed to scan for axions with masses up to 0.39 eV, technique that allows CAST to look into the theoretical regions for axions.