Eur. Phys. J. C (2014) 74: 2859
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-2859-6

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Constraining axion–nucleon coupling constants from measurements of effective Casimir pressure by means of micromachined oscillator

¹ Central Astronomical Observatory at Pulkovo of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 196140, Russia
² Institute of Physics, Nanotechnology and Telecommunications, St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, St. Petersburg, 195251, Russia
³ Department of Physics, Federal University of Paraíba, C.P. 5008, CEP 58059–970 , João Pessoa, PB, Brazil

^* e-mail: vmostepa@gmail.com

Received: 14 February 2014
Accepted: 9 April 2014
Published online: 7 May 2014

Abstract

Stronger constraints on the pseudoscalar coupling constants of an axion to a proton and a neutron are obtained from an indirect measurement of the effective Casimir pressure between two Au-coated plates by means of micromechanical torsional oscillator. For this purpose, the additional effective pressure due to two-axion exchange is calculated. The role of boundary effects and the validity region of the proximity force approximation in application to forces of axion origin are determined. The obtained constraints are up to factors of 380 and 3.2 stronger than those found recently from other laboratory experiments and are relevant to axion masses from to 15 eV.