GPS and the Search for Axions

TL;DR

This paper proposes using GPS signals transmitted between low Earth orbit satellites to detect axions by exploiting Earth's magnetic field, potentially revealing new particle physics phenomena with high sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup leveraging GPS signals and Earth's magnetic field to search for axions, with enhanced sensitivity due to large magnetized length.

Findings

Potential to detect axions through photon dimming

Significantly higher sensitivity than existing methods

Feasibility of using GPS signals for particle physics experiments

Abstract

GPS, an excellent tool for geodesy, may serve also particle physics. In the presence of Earth's magnetic field, a GPS photon may be transformed into an axion. The proposed experimental setup involves the transmission of a GPS signal from a satellite to another satellite, both in low orbit around the Earth. To increase the accuracy of the experiment, we evaluate the influence of Earth's gravitational field on the whole quantum phenomenon. There is a significant advantage in our proposal. While geomagnetic field B is low, the magnetized length L is very large, resulting into a scale (BL)^2 orders of magnitude higher than existing or proposed reaches. The transformation of the GPS photons into axion particles will result in a dimming of the photons and even to a "light shining through the Earth" phenomenon.