Ultralight Axial Dark Matter
Abstract
Ultralight dark matter could be an axial vector field, a simple possibility which motivates new experiments. Couplings to fermions, through an axial vector current or a dark electric dipole moment operator, lead to enhanced spin torques compared to axion dark matter. An axial vector also has an analogue of the axion-photon coupling, though its consistent realization requires a photon mass. Under this "axial-photon" coupling, the effect of a background magnetic field is suppressed, and the strongest experimental probes involve polarimetry, electric fields in superconducting cavities, and the cosmic microwave background. Since a massive axial vector is dual to a massive two-form, our results also apply to "Kalb-Ramond" dark matter motivated by string theory.
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BibTeX
@misc{hook2026ultralight,
title = {{Ultralight Axial Dark Matter}},
author = {Anson Hook and Junwu Huang and Kevin Zhou},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.10671},
eprint = {2609.10671},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10671},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ultralight Axial Dark Matter
AU - Anson Hook
AU - Junwu Huang
AU - Kevin Zhou
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.10671
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10671
AB - Ultralight dark matter could be an axial vector field, a simple possibility which motivates new experiments. Couplings to fermions, through an axial vector current or a dark electric dipole moment operator, lead to enhanced spin torques compared to axion dark matter. An axial vector also has an analogue of the axion-photon coupling, though its consistent realization requires a photon mass. Under this "axial-photon" coupling, the effect of a background magnetic field is suppressed, and the strongest experimental probes involve polarimetry, electric fields in superconducting cavities, and the cosmic microwave background. Since a massive axial vector is dual to a massive two-form, our results also apply to "Kalb-Ramond" dark matter motivated by string theory.
ER -