A Helioscope for Gravitationally Bound Millicharged Particles

Abstract

Particles may be emitted efficiently from the solar interior if they are sufficiently light and weakly coupled to the solar plasma. In a narrow region of phase space, they are emitted with velocities smaller than the escape velocity of the solar system, thereby populating a gravitationally bound density that can accumulate over the solar lifetime, referred to as a "solar basin." Detection strategies that can succeed in spite of (or even be enhanced by) the low particle velocities are therefore poised to explore new regions of parameter space when taking this solar population into account. Here we identify "direct deflection" as a powerful method to detect such a population of millicharged particles. This approach involves distorting the local flow of gravitationally bound millicharges with an oscillating electromagnetic field and measuring these distortions with a resonant LC circuit. Since it is easier to distort the flow of slowly moving particles, the signal is parametrically enhanced by the small solar escape velocity near Earth. The proposed setup can probe couplings an order of magnitude smaller than other methods for millicharge masses ranging from 100 meV to 100 eV and can operate concurrently as a search for sub-GeV millicharged dark matter. The signal power scales as the millicharge coupling to the eighth power, meaning that even with conservative assumptions, direct deflection could begin to explore new regions of parameter space. We also highlight novel features of millicharge solar basins, including those associated with the phase space distribution and the possibility for the occupation number to vastly exceed that of a thermal distribution.