Axion Dark Matter Search with Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

Abstract

Axion dark matter differentiates the phase velocities of the circular-polarized photons. In this Letter, a scheme to measure the phase difference by using a linear optical cavity is proposed. If the scheme is applied to the Fabry-Pérot arm of Advanced LIGO-like (Cosmic-Explorer-like) gravitational wave detector, the potential sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling constant, $g_{\text{a}\gamma }$, reaches $g_{\text{a}\gamma }\simeq 8\times 10^{-13}$ GeV${}^{-1}(4\times 10^{-14}$ GeV${}^{-1})$ at the axion mass $m\simeq 3\times 10^{-13}$ eV ($2\times 10^{-15}$ eV) and remains at around this sensitivity for 3 orders of magnitude in mass. Furthermore, its sensitivity has a sharp peak reaching $g_{\text{a}\gamma }\simeq 10^{-14}$ GeV${}^{-1}$ $(8\times 10^{-17}$ GeV${}^{-1})$ at $m=1.563\times 10^{-10}$ eV ($1.563\times 10^{-11}$ eV). This sensitivity can be achieved without loosing any sensitivity to gravitational waves.

7 pages, 2 figures