Searching for axion-like time-dependent cosmic birefringence with data from SPT-3G

Abstract

Ultralight axionlike particles (ALPs) are compelling dark matter candidates because of their potential to resolve small-scale discrepancies between $\Lambda$CDM predictions and cosmological observations. Axion-photon coupling induces a polarization rotation in linearly polarized photons traveling through an ALP field; thus, as the local ALP dark matter field oscillates in time, distant static polarized sources will appear to oscillate with a frequency proportional to the ALP mass. We use observations of the cosmic microwave background from SPT-3G, the current receiver on the South Pole Telescope, to set upper limits on the value of the axion-photon coupling constant $g_{\varphi \gamma }$ over the approximate mass range $10^{-22}-10^{-19}$ eV, corresponding to oscillation periods from 12 hours to 100 days. For periods between 1 and 100 days ($4.7\times 10^{-22}\text{ eV}\le m_{\varphi }\le 4.7\times 10^{-20}\text{ eV}$), where the limit is approximately constant, we set a median 95% C.L. upper limit on the amplitude of on-sky polarization rotation of 0.071 deg. Assuming that dark matter comprises a single ALP species with a local dark matter density of $0.3{\text{ GeV/cm}}^3$, this corresponds to $g_{\varphi \gamma }<1.18\times 10^{-12}{\text{ GeV}}^{-1}\times \left(\frac{m_{\varphi }}{1.0\times 10^{-21}\text{ eV}}\right)$. These new limits represent an improvement over the previous strongest limits set using the same effect by a factor of ~3.8.

16 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

References in corpus (12)

• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• Revisiting the SN1987A gamma-ray limit on ultralight axion-like particles
• Milky Way Satellite Census. III. Constraints on Dark Matter Properties from Observations of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies
• Measurements of the E-Mode Polarization and Temperature-E-Mode Correlation of the CMB from SPT-3G 2018 Data
• Search for "Invisible" Axion Dark Matter in the $3.3\text{-}4.2\mu$eV Mass Range
• Dark Matter: A Primer
• Axion dark matter search using arm cavity transmitted beams of gravitational wave detectors
• Probing axion-like particles with the ultraviolet photon polarization from active galactic nuclei in radio galaxies
• BICEP / Keck XIV: Improved constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background
• Searching for dark-matter waves with PPTA and QUIJOTE pulsar polarimetry
• BICEP / Keck XII: Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Cosmology From CMB Lensing and Delensed EE Power Spectra Using 2019-2020 SPT-3G Polarization Data
• Magnetic Misalignment of Interstellar Dust Filaments
• Gravitational wave probes of particle dark matter: a review
• Detecting Axion Dark Matter with Black Hole Polarimetry
• Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background with POLARBEAR
• Characterising cosmic birefringence in the presence of galactic foregrounds and instrumental systematic effects
• Search for ultralight dark matter in the SuperMAG high-fidelity dataset
• Exploration of the polarization angle variability of the Crab Nebula with POLARBEAR and its application to the search for axion-like particles
• New Interpretations of the Cosmological Preference for a Negative Neutrino Mass
• Measuring axion gradients with photon interferometry (MAGPI)
• Hunting Galactic Axion Dark Matter with Gravitationally Lensed Fast Radio Bursts
• Optical circular polarization induced by axionlike particles in blazars
• Detecting Extragalactic Axion-like Dark Matter with Polarization Measurements of Fast Radio Bursts
• Isotropic cosmic birefringence from an oscillating axion-like field
• Pulsar Polarization Array Limits on Ultralight Axion-like Dark Matter
• Constraints on axion-like ultralight dark matter from observations of the HL Tauri protoplanetary disk
• BICEP/Keck XXI: Constraints on Early-Universe Parity Violation from Multipole-Dependent Birefringence
• Time-dependent deflection reconstruction: new technique to search for gravitational waves with the cosmic microwave background