Laboratory Constraints on the Neutron-Spin Coupling of feV-scale Axions

Ultralight axion-like particles can contribute to the dark matter near the Sun, leading to a distinct, stochastic signature in terrestrial experiments. We search for such particles through their neutron-spin coupling by re-analyzing approximately 40 days of data from a K-$^3$He co-magnetometer with a new frequency-domain likelihood-based formalism that properly accounts for stochastic effects over all axion coherence times relative to the experimental time span. Assuming that axions make up all of the dark matter in the Sun's vicinity, we find a median 95% upper limit on the neutron-spin coupling of $2.4 \times 10^{-10}$ GeV$^{{-1}}$ for axion masses from 0.4 to 4 feV, which is about five orders of magnitude more stringent than previous laboratory bounds in that mass range. Although several peaks in the experiment's magnetic power spectrum suggest the rejection of a white-noise null hypothesis, further analysis of their lineshapes yields no positive evidence for a dark matter axion.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure

Frequency shifts in noble-gas magnetometers

Polarized nuclei are a powerful tool in nuclear spin studies and in searches for beyond-the-standard model physics. Noble-gas comagnetometer systems, which compare two nuclear species, have thus far been limited by anomalous frequency variations of unknown origin. We studied the self-interactions in a $^3$He-$^{129}$Xe system by independently addressing, controlling and measuring the influence of each component of the nuclear spin polarization. Our results directly rule out prior explanations of the shifts, and demonstrate experimentally that they can be explained by species dependent self-interactions. We also report the first gas phase frequency shift induced by $^{129}$Xe on $^3$He.Comment: v.

Chandra observations and classification of AGN-candidates correlated with Auger UHECRs

We report on Chandra X-ray observations of possible-AGNs which have been correlated with Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) observed by the Pierre Auger Collaboration. Combining our X-ray observations with optical observations, we conclude that one-third of the 21 Veron-Cetty Veron (VCV) galaxies correlating with UHECRs in the first Auger data-release are actually not AGNs. We review existing optical observations of the 20 VCV galaxies correlating with UHECRs in the second Auger data-release and determine that three of them are not AGNs and two are uncertain. Overall, of the 57 published UHECRs with |b|>10 degrees, 22 or 23 correlate with true AGNs using the Auger correlation parameters. We also measured the X-ray luminosity of ESO139-G12 to complete the determination of the bolometric luminosities of AGNs correlating with UHECRs in the first data-set. Apart from two candidate sources which require further observation, we determined bolometric luminosities for the candidate galaxies of the second dataset. We find that only two of the total of 69 published UHECRs correlate with AGNs (IC5135 and IC4329a) which are powerful enough in their steady-state to accelerate protons to the observed energies of their correlated UHECRs. The GZK expectation is that about 45% of the sources of UHECRs above 60 EeV should be contained within the z<0.018 volume defined by the Auger scan analysis, so an observed level of 30-50% correlation with weak AGNs is compatible with the suggestion that AGNs experience transient high-luminosity states during which they accelerate UHECRs.Comment: ApJ in press; extends and supersedes arXiv:1109.0267. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1109.026

US Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter 2017: Community Report

This white paper summarizes the workshop "U.S. Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter" held at University of Maryland on March 23-25, 2017.Comment: 102 pages + reference

Torsion Pendulum Searches for Macroscopic Spin-Interactions as a Window on New Physics

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2015The interactions of intrinsic particle spin offer a powerful window into important aspects of new physics, such as hidden high energy symmetries and CP-violation. This dissertation describes a new spin 20-pole torsion pendulum made with alternating high and low spin-density magnets. We operated the pendulum 4.1\,mm from a spin source and 2.0\,mm from a mass source, reaching the thermal noise level of the torsion fiber in all of our experiments. This allowed us to probe electron spin \dipdip and \mondip interactions to greater sensitivities and over shorter distances than any previously test. We found no evidence of new interactions. Our \mondip experiments set new constraints for exchange boson masses of $\sim$ 1- 500 $\mu$eV. Our \dipdip experiments set new constraints for all interaction lengths, down to 10$^{-15}$ of electromagnetic strength at infinite range

Laboratory Constraints on the Neutron-Spin Coupling of feV-Scale Axions

Ultralight axionlike particles can contribute to the dark matter near the Sun, leading to a distinct, stochastic signature in terrestrial experiments. We search for such particles through their neutron-spin coupling by reanalyzing approximately 40 days of data from a K-^{3}He comagnetometer with a new frequency-domain likelihood-based formalism that properly accounts for stochastic effects over all axion coherence times relative to the experimental time span. Assuming that axions make up all of the dark matter in the Sun’s vicinity, we find a median 95% upper limit on the neutron-spin coupling of 2.4×10^{-10}  GeV^{-1} for most axion masses from 0.4 to 4 feV, which is about 5 orders of magnitude more stringent than previous laboratory bounds in that mass range. Although several peaks in the experiment’s magnetic power spectrum suggest the rejection of a white-noise null hypothesis, further analysis of their line shapes yields no positive evidence for a dark-matter axion