Probing Virtual ALPs by Precision Phase Measurements: Time-Varying Magnetic Field Background

Abstract

We propose an experimental scheme for detecting the effects of off-shell axion-like particles (ALPs) through optical cavities. In this proposed experiment, linearly polarized photons are pumped into an optical cavity where an external time-dependent magnetic field is present.The magnetic field mediates an interaction between the cavity photons and ALPs giving rise to a modification in the phase of the cavity photons. The time-dependent nature of the external magnetic field prompts a novel amplification effect which significantly enhances this phase modification. A detection scheme is then proposed to identify such axion-induced phase shifts. We find that the phase modification is considerably sensitive to the photon-ALPs coupling constants g aγγ for the range of ALPs mass 2 × 10 −6 eV m a 6.3 × 10 −5 eV.

Probing virtual axion-like particles by precision phase measurements

“…One of the photon polarizations ε 1 is in the direction of the magnetic field and the other one ε 2 is perpendicular to it. magnetic field [4,39,65] or a time-varying magnetic field [66], our setup offers a momentum exchange between the photons and a non-uniform background magnetic field which gives rise to resonant scattering processes in the presence of massive ALPs. The resonance enhances the birefringence and thus the phase deviation signal.…”