Searching for Ultra-Light Axions with Twisted Cavity Resonators of Anyon Rotational Symmetry with Bulk Modes of Non-Zero Helicity

Abstract:Möbius-ring resonators stem from a well-studied geometrical structure with a one-sided topology, the Möbius strip, and have been shown to exhibit fermion rotational symmetry with respect to an untwisted ring resonator, which exhibits boson rotational symmetry [1]. Here, we present twisted hollow resonators with equilateral triangular cross-sections, leading to cavities with anyon rotational symmetry. Unlike conventional cavity resonators, these structures permit bulk resonant modes with a non-zero complex electromagnetic overlap $\mathcal C_p=\int_V\mathbf{E}_p\cdot\mathbf{B}_p^*\,d\tau$. The real and imaginary parts of this overlap couple to different observable quadratures. Although the negative-frequency component of a real axion field is immaterial for haloscopes employing a static DC magnetic field, it must be retained for a pumped resonator because the complex forms of Maxwell's equations differ for positive and negative frequencies and produce distinct upper and lower mixing branches. Retaining both branches shows that the real overlap produces amplitude-modulated sidebands, whereas the imaginary helicity of the modes studied here produces phase-modulated sidebands through the axion-photon chiral anomaly. A sensitive ultra-light dark-matter experiment may therefore be realised with an ultra-stable oscillator and a phase-sensitive readout. The sensitivity curves calculated here require the assumed noise floor to be interpreted as phase-modulation noise rather than amplitude-modulation noise, and consequently require sufficiently low residual oscillator phase noise at the axion Fourier frequency. The scheme removes the usual requirement for an external magnetic field and permits superconducting resonators with reduced surface loss and enhanced axion sensitivity.

An erratum has been submitted to Physical Review D; this is the corrected article. Correctly treating both axion frequency components gives AM for real field overlap and PM for imaginary overlap (helicity). Sensitivity curves are numerically unchanged if the assumed noise is interpreted as phase noise, requiring sufficiently low residual oscillator and readout phase noise

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2208.01640 [hep-ph]

(or arXiv:2208.01640v4 [hep-ph] for this version)

Phys. Rev. D 108, 052014, 2023

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.052014 DOI(s) linking to related resources