No Arabic abstract
Exotic spin-dependent interactions may be generated by exchanging hypothetical bosons that have been proposed to solve some mysteries in physics by theories beyond the standard model of particle physics. The search for such interactions can be conducted by tabletop scale experiments using high precision measurement techniques. Here we report an experiment to explore the parity-odd interaction between moving polarized electrons and unpolarized nucleons using a magnetic force microscope. The polarized electrons are provided by the magnetic tip at the end of a silicon cantilever, and their polarizations are approximately magnetized in the plane of the magnetic coating on the tip. A periodic structure with alternative gold and silicon dioxide stripes provides unpolarized nucleons with periodic number density modulation. The exotic forces are expected to change the oscillation amplitude of the cantilever which is measured by a fiber laser interferometer. Data has been taken by scanning the tip over the nucleon source structure at constant separation, and no exotic signal related to the density modulation has been observed. Thus, the experiment sets a limit on the electron-nucleon coupling constant, $g_A^eg_V^Nleq 9times 10^{-15}$ for 15 $mu$m $le lambda le$ 180 $mu$m, using a direct force measurement method.
We report an experimental search for an exotic spin-spin-velocity-dependent interaction between polarized electrons of Rb atoms and polarized electrons of a solid-state mass, violating both the time-reversal and parity symmetries. This search targets a minute effective magnetic field induced by the interaction. A spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) magnetometer based on an optically polarized Rb vapor is the key element for both a source of polarized electrons and a high-sensitivity detector. A dysprosium iron garnet (DyIG) serves as the polarized mass, with an extremely small magnetization at the critical temperature around 240 K and a high spin density. To reduce the magnetization, one of major systematic effects, a home-built cooling system controls the mass temperature. To our knowledge, this is the first search for an exotic spin-dependent interaction using the compensated ferrimagnet DyIG as a polarized mass. The experiment set the most stringent limit on the electron-electron coupling strength in the centimeter interaction range, in particular $g_V^e g_V^e <10^{4}$ at $lambda=2$ cm.
We investigate the sensitivities of searches for exotic spin-dependent interactions between the polarized nuclear spins of $^3$He and the particles of unpolarized or polarized solid-state masses using the frequency method and the resonance method. In the frequency method, the spin-dependent interactions act as an effective static magnetic field, causing the frequency shift to the spin precession of $^{3}$He. In the resonance method, proposed by Arvanitaki and Geraci [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 161801 (2014)] for the significant improvement of the experimental sensitivities on the spin-dependent interactions, the mass movement is modulated at the Larmor frequency of $^3$He. This results in the modulating spin-dependent interactions inducing an effective oscillatory magnetic field, which can tilt the $^3$He spins, similarly as an oscillatory magnetic field in nuclear magnetic resonance. We estimate the sensitivities of the searches using a room-temperature $^3$He target for its extremely long relaxation time. New limits on the coupling strengths of the spin-dependent interactions can be set in the interaction length range below $10^{-1}$ m.
Measuring the depolarization rate of a $^3$He hyperpolarized gas is a sensitive method to probe hypothetical short-range spin-dependent forces. A dedicated experiment is being set up at the Institute Laue Langevin in Grenoble to improve the sensitivity. We presented the status of the experiment at the 10th PATRAS Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs.
We propose a new method to detect short-range textit{P-} and textit{T-} violating interactions between nucleons, based on measuring the precession frequency shift of polarized $^3$He nuclei in the presence of an unpolarized mass. To maximize the sensitivity, a high-pressure $^3$He cell with thin glass windows (250 $rmmu m$) is used to minimize the distance between the mass and $^3$He. The magnetic field fluctuation is suppressed by using the $^3$He gas in a different region of the cell as a magnetometer. Systematic uncertainties from the magnetic properties of the mass are suppressed by flipping both the magnetic field and spin directions. Without any magnetic shielding, our result has already reached the sensitivity of the current best limit. With improvement in uniformity and stability of the field, we can further improve the sensitivity by two orders of magnitude over the force range from $10^{-4}-10^{-2}$ m.
We constructed a $^3$He magnetic force microscope operating at the base temperature of 300 mK under a vector magnetic field of 2-2-9 T in the $x-y-z$ direction. Fiber optic interferometry as a detection scheme is employed in which two home-built fiber walkers are used for the alignment between the cantilever and the optical fiber. The noise level of the laser interferometer is close to its thermodynamic limit. The capabilities of the sub-Kelvin and vector field are demonstrated by imaging the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity in a ferromagnetic superconductor (ErNi$_2$B$_2$C) at $T$=500 mK and by probing a dipole shape of a single Abrikosov vortex with an in-plane tip magnetization.