Searching for the QCD axion with the proposed International Linear Collider beam facility

One of the most promising methods to search for axions is a light-shining-through-walls (LSW) experiment. In this work, we discuss the possibility of performing a LSW experiment at the International Linear Collider facility, where photon beams are generated for positron production. The photon beam is energetic and intense; the energy is of order MeV and the number of photons is about 1024 per year. Because of the high energy and intensity, this LSW experiment can probe a parameter region of the axion unexplored by previous ground-based experiments.