New Experimental Limits on Exotic Spin- and Velocity-dependent Interactions Using Rotationally Modulated Source-masses and an Atomic-magnetometer Array

TL;DR

This study set new experimental limits on exotic spin- and velocity-dependent interactions using rotationally modulated source masses and an atomic magnetometer array, significantly improving existing constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental scheme with noise reduction techniques to enhance sensitivity in detecting exotic interactions.

Findings

New constraints on Vector-Axial interactions improved by over four orders of magnitude.

New constraints on Axial-Axial interactions improved by up to two orders.

Experimental method effectively reduces noise and systematic errors.

Abstract

We conducted laboratory searching for the exotic spin- and velocity-dependent new interactions according to the previously proposed experimental scheme. Two $\sim$6Kg heavy source masses are rotationally modulated at a frequency of 20Hz. Four identical atomic magnetometers are used in an array form to increase the statistics and cancel the common-mode noise. Data processing method based on high precision numerical integration is applied for the four harmonic frequencies of the signal. The rotation direction of the source masses was reversed to flip the signal. Thus the [1,-3,3,-1] weighting method can be applied to remove possible slow drifting further. The experiment method has noise reduction features, and new constraints for Vector-Axial and Axial-Axial were obtained. The new constraints on VA improved by as much as more than four orders, on AA by as much as two orders in the corresponding force range, respectively.