A Proposal to Detect Dark Matter Using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method using antiferromagnetically doped topological insulators to detect axion dark matter in the 0.7 to 3.5 meV range by exploiting axion quasiparticle resonance and THz photon detection.

Contribution

It introduces a new detection approach leveraging axion quasiparticle resonance in A-TI materials, enabling exploration of previously inaccessible dark matter mass ranges.

Findings

Demonstrated the feasibility of detecting axion dark matter using A-TI resonance.

Identified the tunability of resonance with magnetic fields as a key advantage.

Proposed the use of large-volume A-TI samples for improved detection sensitivity.

Abstract

Antiferromagnetically doped topological insulators (A-TI) are among the candidates to host dynamical axion fields and axion-polaritons; weakly interacting quasiparticles that are analogous to the dark axion, a long sought after candidate dark matter particle. Here we demonstrate that using the axion quasiparticle antiferromagnetic resonance in A-TI's in conjunction with low-noise methods of detecting THz photons presents a viable route to detect axion dark matter with mass 0.7 to 3.5 meV, a range currently inaccessible to other dark matter detection experiments and proposals. The benefits of this method at high frequency are the tunability of the resonance with applied magnetic field, and the use of A-TI samples with volumes much larger than 1 mm$^3$.