Abstract:
Axions and other light bosonic fields are well-motivated candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model. Their masses span many orders of magnitude, giving rise to very different experimental signatures. In this talk, I will describe how our group targets these particles across multiple regimes using distinct experimental approaches. Light axions (~μeV–meV) can be detected through spin-dependent forces in tabletop experiments such as ARIADNE. At much lower masses, ultralight bosons can be searched for either as coherent oscillating fields in interferometers like LIGO (~10⁻¹⁴ – 10⁻¹¹ eV) or through astrophysically generated signals using detectors based on levitated sensors (~10⁻¹¹ – 10⁻¹⁰ eV). I will highlight the challenges unique to each technology and present recent results demonstrating the complementary capabilities of these approaches.