Searching spin-mass interaction using a diamagnetic levitated magnetic resonance force sensor

TL;DR

This paper proposes a highly sensitive levitated micromechanical sensor to detect axion-like particles by measuring spin-mass interactions, potentially improving current detection sensitivity by nearly 1000 times.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experiment using a diamagnetically levitated microsphere to search for ALPs via spin-mass resonant interactions, enhancing sensitivity significantly.

Findings

Potential to improve sensitivity by nearly 10^3 times

Effective elimination of nonresonant background forces

Probing ALP mass range from 4 meV to 0.4 eV

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) are predicted to mediate exotic interactions between spin and mass. We propose an ALP-searching experiment based on the levitated micromechanical oscillator, which is one of the most sensitive sensors for spin-mass forces at a short distance. The proposed experiment tests the spin-mass resonant interaction between the polarized electron spins and a diamagnetically levitated microsphere. By periodically flipping the electron spins, the contamination from nonresonant background forces can be eliminated. The levitated microoscillator can prospectively enhance the sensitivity by nearly $10^3$ times over current experiments for ALPs with mass in the range 4 meV to 0.4 eV.