Constraints on axionlike polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background with POLARBEAR

Journal Article · 17 August 2023 · Physical Review. D.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.108.043017 · OSTI ID:2281836

Adachi, Shunsuke  ^[1]; Adkins, Tylor ; Arnold, Kam; Baccigalupi, Carlo ; Barron, Darcy ; Cheung, Kolen ; Chinone, Yuji ; Crowley, Kevin T. ; Errard, Josquin ; Fabbian, Giulio ; Feng, Chang ; Flauger, Raphael; Fujino, Takuro ; Green, Daniel ; Hasegawa, Masaya ; Hazumi, Masashi ; Kaneko, Daisuke ; Katayama, Nobuhiko; Keating, Brian ; Kusaka, Akito ; Lee, Adrian T. ; Minami, Yuto ; Nishino, Haruki ; Reichardt, Christian L. ; Siritanasak, Praween ; Spisak, Jacob ; Tajima, Osamu ; Takakura, Satoru ; Takatori, Sayuri ; Teply, Grant Paul; Yamada, Kyohei

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1. Kyoto University (Japan). The Polarbear Collaboration. et al.

Very light pseudoscalar fields, often referred to as axions, are compelling dark matter candidates and can potentially be detected through their coupling to the electromagnetic field. Recently a novel detection technique using the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was proposed, which relies on the fact that the axion field oscillates at a frequency equal to its mass in appropriate units, leading to a time-dependent birefringence. For appropriate oscillation periods this allows the axion field at the telescope to be detected via the induced sinusoidal oscillation of the CMB linear polarization. Furthermore, we search for this effect in two years of POLARBEAR data. We do not detect a signal and place a median 95% upper limit of 0.65° on the sinusoid amplitude for oscillation frequencies between 0.02 days^-1 and 0.45^-1 days, which corresponds to axion masses between 9.6 × 10^-22 eV and 2.2 × 10^-20 eV. Under the assumptions that 1) the axion constitutes all the dark matter and 2) the axion field amplitude is a Rayleigh-distributed stochastic variable, this translates to a limit on the axion-photon coupling g_Φγ < 2.4 × 10^-11 GeV^-1 × (m_Φ/10^-21 eV).

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); National Science Foundation (NSF); Simons Foundation; Templeton Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Contributing Organization: The Polarbear Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2281836
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 108; ISSN 2470-0010
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English