Probing Virtual Axion-Like Particles by Precision Phase Measurements [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1910.09973


We propose an experiment for detecting Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) based on the axion-photon interaction in the presence of a non-uniform magnetic field. The impact of virtual ALPs on the polarization of the photons inside a cavity is studied and a detection scheme is proposed. We find that the cavity normal modes are dispersed differently owing to their coupling to the ALPs in the presence of a background magnetic field. This birefringence, in turn, can be observed as a phase difference between the cavity polarization modes. The signal is considerably enhanced close to the resonance frequencies of the cavity and further enhanced for a squeezed light source. We propose to scan the resonances with a variable frequency source. We argue that the amplified signal allows for exclusion of a broad range of axion mass $10^{-3}\text{eV} \lesssim m_{a} \lesssim 1 \text{eV}$ even at very small axion-photon coupling constant with the potential to reach sensitivity to the QCD axion. Our scheme allows for the exclusion of a range of axion masses that has not yet been covered by other experimental techniques.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Zarei, S. Shakeri, M. Abdi, et. al.
Wed, 23 Oct 19
26/64

Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures