Bibliographic Details
Title: |
Constraining interactions mediated by axion-like particles with ultracold neutrons |
Authors: |
Afach, S., Ban, G., Bison, G., Bodek, K., Burghoff, M., Daum, M., Fertl, M., Franke, B., Grujić, Z. D., Hélaine, V., Kasprzak, M., Kermaïdic, Y., Kirch, K., Knowles, P., Koch, H. -C., Komposch, S., Kozela, A., Krempel, J., Lauss, B., Lefort, T., Lemière, Y., Mtchedlishvili, A., Naviliat-Cuncic, O., Piegsa, F. M., Pignol, G., Prashanth, P. N., Quéméner, G., Rebreyend, D., Ries, D., Roccia, S., Schmidt-Wellenburg, P., Schnabel, A., Severijns, N., Voigt, J., Weis, A., Zejma, G. Wyszynski J., Zenner, J., Zsigmond, G. |
Publication Year: |
2014 |
Collection: |
High Energy Physics - Experiment High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
Subject Terms: |
High Energy Physics - Experiment, High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
More Details: |
We report a new limit on a possible short range spin-dependent interaction from the precise measurement of the ratio of Larmor precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and $^{199}$Hg atoms confined in the same volume. The measurement was performed in a $\sim$1$\mu$ T vertical magnetic holding field with the apparatus searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron at the Paul Scherrer Institute. A possible coupling between freely precessing polarized neutron spins and unpolarized nucleons of the wall material can be investigated by searching for a tiny change of the precession frequencies of neutron and mercury spins. Such a frequency change can be interpreted as a consequence of a short range spin-dependent interaction that could possibly be mediated by axions or axion-like particles. The interaction strength is proportional to the CP violating product of scalar and pseudoscalar coupling constants $g_Sg_P$. Our result confirms limits from complementary experiments with spin-polarized nuclei in a model-independent way. Limits from other neutron experiments are improved by up to two orders of magnitude in the interaction range of $10^{-6}<\lambda<10^{-4}$ m. |
Document Type: |
Working Paper |
DOI: |
10.1016/j.physletb.2015.04.024 |
Access URL: |
http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.3679 |
Accession Number: |
edsarx.1412.3679 |
Database: |
arXiv |