Physical Review X
Author:
Keywords:
dark matter, axions, neutron electric dipole moment, spin precession, Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Physics, Multidisciplinary, Physics, DIPOLE MOMENT, CP CONSERVATION, NEUTRON, COLD, CONSTRAINTS, INVARIANCE, 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences, 0204 Condensed Matter Physics, 0206 Quantum Physics, 51 Physical sciences
Abstract:
We report on a search for ultralow-mass axionlike dark matter by analyzing the ratio of the spinprecession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and 199Hg atoms for an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment of the neutron and an axion-wind spin-precession effect. No signal consistent with dark matter is observed for the axion mass range 10−24 ≤ ma ≤ 10−17 eV. Our null result sets the first laboratory constraints on the coupling of axion dark matter to gluons, which improve on astrophysical limits by up to 3 orders of magnitude, and also improves on previous laboratory constraints on the axion coupling to nucleons by up to a factor of 40.