• Open Access

Spin precession experiments for light axionic dark matter

Peter W. Graham, David E. Kaplan, Jeremy Mardon, Surjeet Rajendran, William A. Terrano, Lutz Trahms, and Thomas Wilkason
Phys. Rev. D 97, 055006 – Published 5 March 2018

Abstract

Axionlike particles are promising candidates to make up the dark matter of the Universe, but it is challenging to design experiments that can detect them over their entire allowed mass range. Dark matter in general, and, in particular, axionlike particles and hidden photons, can be as light as roughly 1022eV (108Hz), with astrophysical anomalies providing motivation for the lightest masses (“fuzzy dark matter”). We propose experimental techniques for direct detection of axionlike dark matter in the mass range from roughly 1013eV (102Hz) down to the lowest possible masses. In this range, these axionlike particles act as a time-oscillating magnetic field coupling only to spin, inducing effects such as a time-oscillating torque and periodic variations in the spin-precession frequency with the frequency and direction of these effects set by the axion field. We describe how these signals can be measured using existing experimental technology, including torsion pendulums, atomic magnetometers, and atom interferometry. These experiments demonstrate a strong discovery capability, with future iterations of these experiments capable of pushing several orders of magnitude past current astrophysical bounds.

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  • Received 20 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.055006

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Peter W. Graham1, David E. Kaplan2, Jeremy Mardon1, Surjeet Rajendran3, William A. Terrano4,5, Lutz Trahms6, and Thomas Wilkason7,*

  • 1Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
  • 3Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 4Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-4290, USA
  • 5Physikdepartment, Technische Universität München, D-85748 Garching, Germany
  • 6Physikalisch-Technische-Bundesanstalt (PTB) Berlin, D-10587 Berlin, Germany
  • 7Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

  • *wilkason@stanford.edu

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 5 — 1 March 2018

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