Kavli Affiliate: Jia Liu
| First 5 Authors: Zitong Xu, Xiaolin Ma, Kai Wei, Yuxuan He, Xing Heng
| Summary:
Experiments aimed at detecting ultralight dark matter typically rely on
resonant effects, which are sensitive to the dark matter mass that matches the
resonance frequency. In this study, we investigate the nucleon couplings of
ultralight axion dark matter using a magnetometer operating in a nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) mode. Our approach involves the use of a $^{21}$Ne
spin-based sensor, which features the lowest nuclear magnetic moment among
noble-gas spins. This configuration allows us to achieve an ultrahigh
sensitivity of 0.73 fT/Hz$^{1/2}$ at around 5 Hz, corresponding to energy
resolution of approximately 1.5$times
10^{-23},rm{eV/Hz^{1/2}}$. Our analysis reveals that under certain
conditions it is beneficial to scan the frequency with steps significantly
larger than the resonance width. The analytical results are in agreement with
experimental data and the scan strategy is potentially applicable to other
resonant searches. Further, our study establishes stringent constraints on
axion-like particles (ALP) in the 4.5–15.5 Hz Compton-frequency range coupling
to neutrons and protons, improving on prior work by several-fold. Within a band
around 4.6–6.6 Hz and around 7.5 Hz, our laboratory findings surpass
astrophysical limits derived from neutron-star cooling. Hence, we demonstrate
an accelerated resonance search for ultralight dark matter, achieving an
approximately 30-fold increase in scanning step while maintaining competitive
sensitivity.
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