Axion-like particles (ALPs) arise from well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model and could account for dark matter. ALP dark matter would manifest as a field oscillating at an (as of yet) unknown frequency. The frequency depends linearly on the ALP mass and plausibly ranges from 10−22to 10 eV/c2. This motivates broadband search approaches. We report on a direct search for ALP dark matter with an interferometer composed of two atomic K-Rb-3He comagnetometers, one situated in Mainz, Germany, and the other in Kraków, Poland. We leverage the anticipated spatio-temporal coherence properties of the ALP field and probe all ALP-gradient-spin interactions covering a mass range of nine orders of magnitude. No significant evidence of an ALP signal is found. We thus place new upper limits on the ALP-neutron, ALP-proton and ALP-electron couplings reaching belowgaNN < 10−9 GeV−1,gaPP < 10−7 GeV−1andgaee < 10−6 GeV−1, respectively. These limits improve upon previous laboratory constraints for neutron and proton couplings by up to three orders of magnitude.
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Predictions for axion couplings from ALP cogenesis
A bstract Adding an axion-like particle (ALP) to the Standard Model, with a field velocity in the early universe, simultaneously explains the observed baryon and dark matter densities. This requires one or more couplings between the ALP and photons, nucleons, and/or electrons that are predicted as functions of the ALP mass. These predictions arise because the ratio of dark matter to baryon densities is independent of the ALP field velocity, allowing a correlation between the ALP mass, m a , and decay constant, f a . The predicted couplings are orders of magnitude larger than those for the QCD axion and for dark matter from the conventional ALP misalignment mechanism. As a result, this scheme, ALP cogenesis, is within reach of future experimental ALP searches from the lab and stellar objects, and for dark matter.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1638509
- PAR ID:
- 10256980
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Volume:
- 2021
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1029-8479
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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