Production and Detection of Axion-like Particles by Interferometry

H. Tam; Q. Yang

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.050

paper

Production and Detection of Axion-like Particles by Interferometry

arXiv:1107.1712 · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.050

Abstract

We propose an interferometry experiment for the detection of axion-like particles (ALPs). As in ordinary photon-regeneration (light shining through a wall) experiments, a laser beam traverses a region permeated by a magnetic field, where photons are converted to ALPs via the Primakoff process, resulting in a slight power loss and phase shift. The beam is then combined with a reference beam that originates from the same source. The detection of a change in the output intensity would signal the presence of ALPs (or possibly other particles that couple to the photon in a similar way). Because only one stage of conversion is needed, the signal is of $O (g_{aγ γ}^{2})$ , as opposed to $O (g_{aγ γ}^{4})$ for photon-regeneration experiments, where $g_{aγ γ}$ is the coupling between ALPs and photons. This improvement over photon-regeneration is nullified by the presence of shot noise, which however can be reduced by the use of squeezed light, resulting in an improvement in the sensitivity to $g_{aγ γ}$ over ordinary photon-regeneration experiments by an order of $1 0^{1/2}$ assuming $10 dB$ noise suppression. Additionally, our setup can incorporate straightforwardly optical delay lines or Fabry-Perot cavities, boosting the signal by a factor of $n \sim 1 0^{3}$ , where $n$ is the number of times the laser beam is folded. This way, we can constrain $g_{aγ γ}$ better by yet another factor of $n^{1/2} \sim 1 0^{1.5}$ , as compared to the $n^{1/4}$ boost that would be achieved in photon-regeneration experiments.

8 pages, 1 figure. Version published by Physics Letters B

Production and Detection of Axion-like Particles by Interferometry

Abstract

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