Search for Ultralight Axion Dark Matter with a Levitated Ferromagnetic Torsional Oscillator

TL;DR

This study searches for ultralight axion dark matter using a levitated ferromagnetic torsional oscillator, setting new limits on axion-electron coupling and proposing future enhancements for increased sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental platform combining macroscopic spin-polarized bodies with mechanical isolation to detect axion-induced effects.

Findings

No axion signal detected near 2e-14 eV

Set upper limits on axion-electron coupling (g_aee < 1e-7 uncorrected, < 6e-5 corrected)

Proposed future improvements to enhance sensitivity by orders of magnitude

Abstract

We present a search for ultralight axion dark matter coupled to electron spins using a levitated ferromagnetic torsional oscillator (FMTO). This platform directly measures axion-induced torques on a macroscopic spin-polarized body, combining large spin density with strong mechanical isolation to probe magnetic fluctuations below 10 Hz while suppressing gradient-field noise. In a first implementation, the experiment yielded 18000 s of analyzable data at room temperature under high vacuum with optical readout and triple-layer magnetic shielding. A likelihood-based statistical framework, incorporating stochastic fluctuations in the axion-field amplitude, was used to evaluate the data. No excess consistent with an axion-induced pseudo-magnetic field was observed near 2e-14 eV. To account for possible shielding-induced signal attenuation, we quantify its effect and report both the uncorrected (g_aee < 1e-7) and attenuation-corrected (g_aee < 6e-5) 90% CL limits on the axion-electron coupling. Looking ahead, improvements guided by both noise-budget analysis and shielding-attenuation considerations, including optimized levitation geometry, cryogenic operation, and superconducting shielding, are expected to boost sensitivity by multiple orders of magnitude.