PRODUCTION AND DETECTION OF LIGHT BOSONS USING OPTICAL RESONATORS

Experiments looking for light spin-zero particles using the "shining light through walls" technique can be improved by enclosing the light in an optical resonator. In this paper we analyze this technique. The effect of using cavities factorizes into a gain factor for both the emitting and the receiving cavity and a mode coupling constant. The gain factor only depends on the optical quality of the two cavities, whereas the mode coupling constant depends, but not sensitively, in a calculable way on the geometry, axion mass and magnetic fields used. An increase in sensitivity by a factor 10 in the axion-photon coupling constant is within reach.