Axions are one of the well-motivated candidates for dark matter, originally
proposed to solve the strong CP problem in particle physics. Dark matter Axion
search with riNg Cavity Experiment (DANCE) is a new experimental project to
broadly search for axion dark matter in the mass range of 10−17 eV<ma​<10−11 eV. We aim to detect the rotational oscillation of
linearly polarized light caused by the axion-photon coupling with a bow-tie
cavity. The first results of the prototype experiment, DANCE Act-1, are
reported from a 24-hour observation. We found no evidence for axions and set
95% confidence level upper limit on the axion-photon coupling gaγ​≲8×10−4 GeV−1 in 10−14 eV<ma​<10−13 eV. Although the bound did not exceed the current best
limits, this optical cavity experiment is the first demonstration of
polarization-based axion dark matter search without any external magnetic
field.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure