2016/07/18 by N. Leefer, A. Gerhardus, Andreas Gerhardus +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Cosmology #Fifth force #Higgs boson #Particle physics #Physics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar boson #Scalar field #Spectral line #Spectroscopy #Yukawa potential #hep-ex #hep-ph #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.271601
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 271601 (2016) · 7 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2016/07/18 · openalex publication_date 2016/12/29 · arxiv updated 2017/01/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We propose a new method to search for hypothetical scalar particles that have feeble interactions with standard-model particles. In the presence of massive bodies, these interactions produce a nonzero Yukawa-type scalar-field magnitude. Using radio-frequency spectroscopy data of atomic dysprosium, as well as atomic clock spectroscopy data, we constrain the Yukawa-type interactions of a scalar field with the photon, electron, and nucleons for a range of scalar-particle masses corresponding to length scales >10 cm. In the limit as the scalar-particle mass m_\ensuremathφ\ensuremath→0, our derived limits on the Yukawa-type interaction parameters are \mathrm\ensuremathΛ_\ensuremathγ\ensuremath\gtrsim8\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1019 GeV, \mathrm\ensuremathΛe\ensuremath\gtrsim1.3\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1019 GeV, and \mathrm\ensuremathΛN\ensuremath\gtrsim6\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1020 GeV. Our measurements also constrain combinations of interaction parameters, which cannot otherwise be probed with traditional anomalous-force measurements. We suggest further measurements to improve on the current level of sensitivity.