First observation and analysis of DANCE: Dark matter Axion search with riNg Cavity Experiment

TL;DR

The paper reports the first observation and analysis of DANCE, a novel experiment using a ring cavity to search for axion dark matter by detecting polarization rotation, demonstrating technical feasibility and setting new sensitivity limits.

Contribution

This work introduces DANCE, a new ring cavity experiment for axion detection, and presents initial results from a prototype demonstrating its potential and technical viability.

Findings

Successful first 12-day observation period.

Achieved sensitivity of 3×10⁻⁶ rad/√Hz at 10 Hz.

Demonstrated feasibility of polarization rotation detection with ring cavity.

Abstract

Dark matter Axion search with riNg Cavity Experiment (DANCE) was proposed to search for axion dark matter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 161301 (2018)]. We aim to detect the rotation and oscillation of optical linear polarization caused by axion-photon coupling with a bow-tie cavity. DANCE can improve the sensitivity to axion-photon coupling constant $g_{a \gamma}$ for axion mass $m_a < 10^{-10}~\rm{eV}$ by several orders of magnitude compared to the best upper limits at present. A prototype experiment DANCE Act-1 is ongoing to demonstrate the feasibility of the method and to investigate technical noises. The optics was assembled and the performance of the cavity was evaluated. The first 12-day observation was successfully performed in May 2021. We reached $3 \times 10^{-6}~\rm{rad/\sqrt{Hz}}$ at $10~\rm{Hz}$ in the one-sided amplitude spectral density of the rotation angle of linear polarization.