BICEP/Keck XIV: Improved constraints on axionlike polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background
Creators
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Ade, P. A. R.
- Ahmed, Z.
- Amiri, M.
- Barkats, D.
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Basu Thakur, R.
- Bischoff, C. A.
- Beck, D.
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Bock, J. J.
- Boenish, H.
- Bullock, E.
- Buza, V.
- Cheshire, J. R.
- Connors, J.
- Cornelison, J.
- Crumrine, M.
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Cukierman, A.
- Denison, E. V.
- Dierickx, M.
- Duband, L.
- Eiben, M.
- Fatigoni, S.
- Filippini, J. P.
- Fliescher, S.
- Goeckner-Wald, N.
- Goldfinger, D. C.
- Grayson, J.
- Grimes, P.
- Hall, G.
- Halal, G.
- Halpern, M.
- Hand, E.
- Harrison, S.
- Henderson, S.
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Hildebrandt, S. R.
- Hilton, G. C.
- Hubmayr, J.
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Hui, H.
- Irwin, K. D.
- Kang, J.
- Karkare, K. S.
- Karpel, E.
- Kefeli, S.
- Kernasovskiy, S. A.
- Kovac, J. M.
- Kuo, C. L.
- Lau, K.
- Leitch, E. M.
- Lennox, A.
- Megerian, K. G.
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Minutolo, L.
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Moncelsi, L.
- Nakato, Y.
- Namikawa, T.
- Nguyen, H. T.
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O'Brient, R.
- Ogburn, R. W.
- Palladino, S.
- Prouve, T.
- Pryke, C.
- Racine, B.
- Reintsema, C. D.
- Richter, S.
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Schillaci, A.
- Schwarz, R.
- Schmitt, B. L.
- Sheehy, C. D.
- Soliman, A.
- St. Germaine, T.
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Steinbach, B.
- Sudiwala, R. V.
- Teply, G. P.
- Thompson, K. L.
- Tolan, J. E.
- Tucker, C.
- Turner, A. D.
- Umiltà, C.
- Vergès, C.
- Vieregg, A. G.
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Wandui, A.
- Weber, A. C.
- Wiebe, D. V.
- Willmert, J.
- Wong, C. L.
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Wu, W. L. K.
- Yang, H.
- Yoon, K. W.
- Young, E.
- Yu, C.
- Zeng, L.
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Zhang, C.
- Zhang, S.
- BICEP/Keck Collaboration
Abstract
We present an improved search for axionlike polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with observations from the Keck Array. An all-sky, temporally sinusoidal rotation of CMB polarization, equivalent to a time-variable cosmic birefringence, is an observable manifestation of a local axion field and potentially allows a CMB polarimeter to detect axionlike dark matter directly. We describe improvements to the method presented in previous work, and we demonstrate the updated method with an expanded dataset consisting of the 2012–2015 observing seasons. We set limits on the axion-photon coupling constant for mass m in the range 10⁻²³–10⁻¹⁸ eV, which corresponds to oscillation periods on the order of hours to years. Our results are consistent with the background model. For periods between 1 and 30 d (1.6 × 10⁻²¹ ≤ m ≤ 4.8 × 10⁻²⁰ eV), the 95%-confidence upper limits on rotation amplitude are approximately constant with a median of 0.27°, which constrains the axion-photon coupling constant to g_(ϕγ) < (4.5 × 10⁻¹² GeV⁻¹)m/(10⁻²¹ eV), if axionlike particles constitute all of the dark matter. More than half of the collected BICEP dataset has yet to be analyzed, and several current and future CMB polarimetry experiments can apply the methods presented here to achieve comparable or superior constraints. In the coming years, oscillation measurements can achieve the sensitivity to rule out unexplored regions of the axion parameter space.
Additional Information
© 2022 American Physical Society. (Received 13 August 2021; accepted 11 January 2022; published 28 January 2022) The BICEP/Keck Array projects have been made possible through a series of grants from the National Science Foundation including Grants No. 0742818, No. 0742592, No. 1044978, No. 1110087, No. 1145172, No. 1145143, No. 1145248, No. 1639040, No. 1638957, No. 1638978, No. 1638970, and No. 1836010 and by the Keck Foundation. The development of antenna-coupled detector technology was supported by the JPL Research and Technology Development Fund and Grants No. 06-ARPA206-0040 and No. 10-SAT10-0017 from the NASA APRA and SAT programs. The development and testing of focal planes were supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation at Caltech. Readout electronics were supported by a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant to UBC. The computations in this paper were run on the Odyssey cluster supported by the FAS Science Division Research Computing Group at Harvard University. The analysis effort at Stanford and S. L. A. C. was partially supported by the Department of Energy, Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515. We thank the staff of the U.S. Antarctic Program and in particular the South Pole Station without whose help this research would not have been possible. Most special thanks go to our heroic winter-overs Robert Schwarz and Steffen Richter. We thank all those who have contributed past efforts to the BICEP/Keck Array series of experiments.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevD.105.022006.pdf
Submitted - 2108.03316.pdf
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Additional details
Additional titles
- Alternative title
- BICEP / Keck XIV: Improved constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 113319
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20220207-90398000
Related works
- Describes
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.022006 (DOI)
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.03316 (URL)
Funding
- NSF
- OPP-0742818
- NSF
- OPP-0742592
- NSF
- OPP-1044978
- NSF
- ANT-1110087
- NSF
- OPP-1145172
- NSF
- OPP-1145143
- NSF
- OPP-1145248
- NSF
- OPP-1639040
- NSF
- OPP-1638957
- NSF
- OPP-1638978
- NSF
- OPP-1638970
- NSF
- AST-1836010
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- JPL Research and Technology Development Fund
- NASA
- 06-ARPA206-0040
- NASA
- 10-SAT10-0017
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Canada Foundation for Innovation
- Harvard University
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-AC02-76SF00515
Dates
- Created
-
2022-02-08Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2022-02-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field