Probing an ultralight QCD axion with electromagnetic quadratic interaction

Abstract

The axion-gluon coupling is the defining feature of the QCD axion. This feature induces additional and qualitatively different interactions of the axion with standard model particles -- quadratic couplings. Previously, hadronic quadratic couplings have been studied and experimental implications have been explored especially in the context of atomic spectroscopy and interferometry. We investigate additional quadratic couplings to the electromagnetic field and electron mass. These electromagnetic quadratic couplings are generated at the loop level from threshold corrections and are expected to be present in the absence of fine-tuning. While they are generally loop-suppressed compared to the hadronic ones, they open up new ways to search for the QCD axion, for instance via optical atomic clocks. Moreover, due to the velocity spread of the dark matter field, the quadratic nature of the coupling leads to low-frequency fluctuations in any detector setup. These distinctive low-frequency fluctuations offer a way to search for heavier axions. We provide an analytic expression for the power spectral density of this low-frequency background and briefly discuss experimental strategies for a low-frequency background search.

13 pages, 4 figures, updated missing references (I2)

References in corpus (42)

• Cold and Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules
• Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law
• The QCD axion, precisely
• Cosmological Relaxation of the Electroweak Scale
• Discovering the QCD Axion with Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
• Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks
• Wave Dark Matter
• Dark Matter Direct Detection with Accelerometers
• Can dark matter induce cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants of Nature?
• Searching for an oscillating massive scalar field as a dark matter candidate using atomic hyperfine frequency comparisons
• Precision Metrology Meets Cosmology: Improved Constraints on Ultralight Dark Matter from Atom-Cavity Frequency Comparisons
• MICROSCOPE mission: first constraints on the violation of the weak equivalence principle by a light scalar dilaton
• Matching pion-nucleon Roy-Steiner equations to chiral perturbation theory
• Revealing the Dark Matter Halo with Axion Direct Detection
• Search for light scalar dark matter with atomic gravitational wave detectors
• Search for axion-like dark matter through nuclear spin precession in electric and magnetic fields
• Dependence of nuclear magnetic moments on quark masses and limits on temporal variation of fundamental constants from atomic clock experiments
• Probing axions with neutron star inspirals and other stellar processes
• Detecting dark matter waves with precision measurement tools
• Improved limits on the coupling of ultralight bosonic dark matter to photons from optical atomic clock comparisons
• Solving the Hierarchy Problem Discretely
• Search for axion-like dark matter using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance
• Sub-eV scalar dark matter through the super-renormalizable Higgs portal
• Improved limits on interactions of low-mass spin-0 dark matter from atomic clock spectroscopy
• Axion-like Relics: New Constraints from Old Comagnetometer Data
• NASDUCK: New Constraints on Axion-like Dark Matter from Floquet Quantum Detector
• Effects of theta on the deuteron binding energy and the triple-alpha process
• Search for light scalar Dark Matter candidate with AURIGA detector
• First Constraints on Nuclear Coupling of Axionlike Particles from the Binary Neutron Star Gravitational Wave Event GW170817
• Enhanced Sensitivity to Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter in the Spectra of the Linear Radical SrOH
• A small weak scale from a small cosmological constant
• Coherent relaxion dark matter
• Probing the Relaxed Relaxion at the Luminosity and Precision Frontiers
• The Phenomenology of Quadratically Coupled Ultra Light Dark Matter
• Laboratory Constraints on the Neutron-Spin Coupling of feV-scale Axions
• The QCD Axion at Finite Density
• Sliding Naturalness
• Gravitational Focusing of Wave Dark Matter
• Sliding Naturalness: Cosmological Selection of the Weak Scale
• Relaxion Dark Matter from Stochastic Misalignment
• Intensity interferometry for ultralight bosonic dark matter detection

Cited by in corpus (17)

• A Quantum Description of Wave Dark Matter
• Ultralight Dark Matter Search with Space-Time Separated Atomic Clocks and Cavities
• Searching for dark matter with the Th-229 nuclear lineshape from laser spectroscopy
• Prospects of nuclear-coupled-dark-matter detection via correlation spectroscopy of I${}_2^{+}$ and Ca${}^{+}$
• Constraints on the Variation of Physical Constants, Equivalence Principle Violation, and a Fifth Force from Atomic Experiments
• Bosenovae with Quadratically-Coupled Scalars in Quantum Sensing Experiments
• Nelson-Barr ultralight dark matter
• Violation of the equivalence principle induced by oscillating rest mass and transition frequency, and its detection in atom interferometers
• Axion Bounds from Quantum Technology
• Detecting Ultralight Dark Matter with Matter Effect
• New Technologies for Axion and Dark Photon Searches
• Ponderomotive Effects of Ultralight Dark Matter
• Wideband Search for Axionlike Dark Matter Using Octupolar Nuclei in a Crystal
• Multimessenger Astronomy Beyond the Standard Model: New Window from Quantum Sensors
• Ultralight Dark Matter from the Edge of Field Space
• Probing New Forces with Nuclear Clocks
• Probing Quadratically Coupled Ultralight Dark Matter with Pulsar Timing Arrays