Dark matter axions, non-newtonian gravity and constraints on them from recent measurements of the casimir force in the micrometer separation range

Abstract

We consider axionlike particles as the most probable constituents of dark matter, the Yukawa-type corrections to Newton’s gravitational law and constraints on their parameters following from astrophysics and different laboratory experiments. After a brief discussion of the results by Prof. Yu. N. Gnedin in this field, we turn our attention to the recent experiment on measuring the differential Casimir force between Au-coated surfaces of a sphere and the top and bottom of rectangular trenches. In this experiment, the Casimir force was measured over an unusually wide separation region from 0.2 to 8 µm and compared with the exact theory based on first principles of quantum electrodynamics at nonzero temperature. We use the measure of agreement between experiment and theory to obtain the constraints on the coupling constant of axionlike particles to nucleons and on the interaction strength of a Yukawa-type interaction. The constraints obtained on the axion-to-nucleon coupling constant and on the strength of a Yukawa interaction are stronger by factors of 4 and 24, respectively, than those found previously from gravitational experiments and measurements of the Casimir force but weaker than the constraints following from a differential measurement where the Casimir force was nullified. Some other already performed and planned experiments aimed at searching for axions and non-Newtonian gravity are discussed, and their prospects are evaluated.