NASDUCK: New Constraints on Axion-like Dark Matter from Floquet Quantum Detector

TL;DR

This paper presents new experimental constraints on axion-like particles using a novel quantum detector, significantly improving previous bounds on ALP interactions with protons and neutrons in specific mass ranges.

Contribution

The study introduces the NASDUCK detector and provides the first terrestrial constraints on ALP-proton and ALP-neutron couplings in the specified mass range, surpassing prior bounds.

Findings

Improved constraints on ALP-proton and ALP-neutron couplings by up to 3 orders of magnitude.

Extended the exclusion region for ALP interactions in the mass range $4\times 10^{-15}$ to $4\times 10^{-12}$ eV/c^2.

Provided bounds on quadratic couplings of dark matter to nucleons.

Abstract

We report on the first results of the Noble and Alkali Spin Detectors for Ultralight Coherent darK matter (NASDUCK) collaboration. We search for the interactions of Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) with atomic spins using an earth-based precision quantum detector as it traverses through the galactic dark matter halo. The detector is composed of spin-polarized xenon gas which can coherently interact with a background ALP dark matter field and an in-situ rubidium Floquet optical-magnetometer. Conducting a five months-long search, we derive new constraints on ALP-proton and ALP-neutron interactions in the $4\times 10^{-15}-4\times 10^{-12}{~\rm eV/c^2}$ mass range. Our limits on the ALP-proton (ALP-neutron) couplings improve upon previous terrestrial bounds by up to 3 orders of magnitude for masses above $4\times 10^{-14}{~\rm eV/c^2}$ ($4\times 10^{-13}{~\rm eV/c^2}$). Moreover, barring the uncertain supernova constraints, the ALP-proton bound improves on all existing terrestrial and astrophysical limits, partially closing the unexplored region for couplings in the range $10^{-6}~{\rm GeV^{-1}}$ to $2\times 10^{-5}~{\rm GeV^{-1}}$. Finally, we also cast bounds on pseudo-scalar dark matter models in which dark matter is quadratically-coupled to the nucleons.