中国物理B ›› 2021, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (5): 50704-050704.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/abf132

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Search for topological defect of axionlike model with cesium atomic comagnetometer

Yucheng Yang(杨雨成)1, Teng Wu(吴腾)1,†, Jianwei Zhang(张建玮)2, and Hong Guo(郭弘)1,‡   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Department of Electronics, and Center for Quantum Information Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    2 School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 收稿日期:2021-02-04 修回日期:2021-03-15 接受日期:2021-03-24 出版日期:2021-05-14 发布日期:2021-05-14
  • 通讯作者: Teng Wu, Hong Guo E-mail:wuteng@pku.edu.cn;hongguo@pku.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62071012), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 61225003), and National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China.

Search for topological defect of axionlike model with cesium atomic comagnetometer

Yucheng Yang(杨雨成)1, Teng Wu(吴腾)1,†, Jianwei Zhang(张建玮)2, and Hong Guo(郭弘)1,‡   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Department of Electronics, and Center for Quantum Information Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    2 School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2021-02-04 Revised:2021-03-15 Accepted:2021-03-24 Online:2021-05-14 Published:2021-05-14
  • Contact: Teng Wu, Hong Guo E-mail:wuteng@pku.edu.cn;hongguo@pku.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62071012), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 61225003), and National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China.

摘要: Many terrestrial experiments have been designed to detect domain walls composed of axions or axionlike particles (ALPs), which are promising candidates of dark matter. When the domain wall crosses over the Earth, the pseudoscalar field of ALPs could couple to the atomic spins. Such exotic spin-dependent couplings can be searched for by monitoring the transient-in-time change of the atomic spin precession frequency in the presence of a magnetic field. We propose here a single-species cesium atomic comagnetometer, which measures the spin precession frequencies of atoms in different ground-state hyperfine levels, to eliminate the common-mode magnetic-field variations and search for the exotic non-magnetic couplings solely between protons and ALPs. With the single-species atomic comagnetometer, we experimentally rule out the possibility that the decay constant of the linear pseudoscalar couplings of ALPs to protons is $f_{\rm p}\lesssim 3.71\times 10^{7}~\rm{GeV}$. The advanced system has the potential to constrain the constant to be $f_{\rm p}\lesssim 10.7\times 10^{9}~\rm{GeV}$, promising to improve astrophysical constraint level by at least one order of magnitude. Our system could provide a sensitive detection method for the global network of optical magnetometers to search for exotic physics.

关键词: atomic comagnetometer, atomic magnetometer, domain wall, axions and axionlike particles

Abstract: Many terrestrial experiments have been designed to detect domain walls composed of axions or axionlike particles (ALPs), which are promising candidates of dark matter. When the domain wall crosses over the Earth, the pseudoscalar field of ALPs could couple to the atomic spins. Such exotic spin-dependent couplings can be searched for by monitoring the transient-in-time change of the atomic spin precession frequency in the presence of a magnetic field. We propose here a single-species cesium atomic comagnetometer, which measures the spin precession frequencies of atoms in different ground-state hyperfine levels, to eliminate the common-mode magnetic-field variations and search for the exotic non-magnetic couplings solely between protons and ALPs. With the single-species atomic comagnetometer, we experimentally rule out the possibility that the decay constant of the linear pseudoscalar couplings of ALPs to protons is $f_{\rm p}\lesssim 3.71\times 10^{7}~\rm{GeV}$. The advanced system has the potential to constrain the constant to be $f_{\rm p}\lesssim 10.7\times 10^{9}~\rm{GeV}$, promising to improve astrophysical constraint level by at least one order of magnitude. Our system could provide a sensitive detection method for the global network of optical magnetometers to search for exotic physics.

Key words: atomic comagnetometer, atomic magnetometer, domain wall, axions and axionlike particles

中图分类号:  (Magnetometers for magnetic field measurements)

  • 07.55.Ge
07.55.Jg (Magnetometers for susceptibility, magnetic moment, and magnetization measurements) 11.27.+d (Extended classical solutions; cosmic strings, domain walls, texture) 75.60.Ch (Domain walls and domain structure)