Static electric dipole moment of the francium atom induced by axionlike particle exchange

TL;DR

This paper proposes using francium atom experiments to search for axionlike particles by analyzing their potential to induce electric dipole moments, providing a new avenue for particle physics research.

Contribution

It calculates electronic structure constants for ALP-mediated interactions across various masses, linking atomic EDM measurements to constraints on ALP properties.

Findings

ALP interactions can significantly contribute to atomic EDMs within current constraints.

Francium experiments could set stronger limits on ALP-electron and ALP-nucleon couplings.

The method broadens the scope of atomic EDM experiments for new physics searches.

Abstract

The francium atom is considered as a prospective candidate system to search for the T,P-violating electron electric dipole moment [T. Aoki et al Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 044008 (2021)]. We demonstrate that the same experiment can be used for axionlike particles (ALP) search. For this, we calculate electronic structure constants of ALP-mediated interaction for a wide range of ALP masses. Using the recently updated constraints on the ALP-electron and ALP-nucleon coupling constants, we show that the contribution of considered interactions corresponding to these constraints can give significant contribution to atomic electric dipole moment. Therefore, obtainment of stronger restrictions for ALP characteristics in the francium atom electric dipole moment experiment is possible.