English

Axions and Atomic Clocks

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2019-05-30 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment Quantum Physics

Abstract

The equations of electrodynamics are altered in the presence of a classical coherent axion dark matter background field, changing the dispersion relation for electromagnetic waves. Careful measurements of the frequency stability in sensitive atomic clocks could in principle provide evidence for such a background for fa107f_a \ge 10^7 GeV. Turning on a background magnetic field might enhance these effects in a controllable way, and interferometric measurements might also be useful for probing the time-varying photon dispersion relation that results from a coherent cosmic axion background.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.10014,
  title  = {Axions and Atomic Clocks},
  author = {Lawrence M. Krauss},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.10014},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

3 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. New reference added

R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:21:26.675Z