Constraints on the polarization angle oscillations of the Crab Nebula with the Simons Array and its applications to the search for axionlike particles

POLARBEAR Collaboration; Tylor Adkins; Kam Arnold; Carlo Baccigalupi; Darcy R. Barron; Bryce Bixler; Yuji Chinone; Matthew R. Chu; Kevin T. Crowley; Nicole Farias; Takuro Fujino; Masaya Hasegawa; Masashi Hazumi; Haruaki Hirose; Jennifer Ito; Oliver Jeong; Daisuke Kaneko; Brian Keating; Akito Kusaka; Adrian T. Lee; Masaaki Murata; Lucio Piccirillo; Christian L. Reichardt; Kana Sakaguri; Shahed Shayan Arani; Praween Siritanasak; Satoru Takakura; Sayuri Takatori; Osamu Tajima; Kyohei Yamada; Yuyang Zhou

doi:10.1103/9wqc-tgzq

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Constraints on the polarization angle oscillations of the Crab Nebula with the Simons Array and its applications to the search for axionlike particles

Tylor Adkins ^1,*, Kam Arnold², Carlo Baccigalupi ^3,4,5, Darcy R. Barron ⁶, Bryce Bixler ⁷, Yuji Chinone ^8,9, Matthew R. Chu ⁷, Kevin T. Crowley ², Nicole Farias ¹ et al. (POLARBEAR Collaboration)

Nicole Farias ¹, Takuro Fujino⁸, Masaya Hasegawa ^8,10, Masashi Hazumi ^10,11, Haruaki Hirose ^10,12, Jennifer Ito ¹³, Oliver Jeong ^14,15,†, Daisuke Kaneko⁸, Brian Keating ⁷, Akito Kusaka^15,16,17,18, Adrian T. Lee^1,15, Masaaki Murata ^16,‡, Lucio Piccirillo¹⁹, Christian L. Reichardt ²⁰, Kana Sakaguri ¹⁶, Shahed Shayan Arani ^7,21, Praween Siritanasak ²², Satoru Takakura¹⁶, Sayuri Takatori²³, Osamu Tajima^8,24, Kyohei Yamada ²⁵, and Yuyang Zhou ¹ (POLARBEAR Collaboration)

¹Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
²Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
³The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy
⁴The National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), via Valerio 2, I-34127, Trieste, Italy
⁵The Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU), Via Beirut 2, I-34151, Trieste, Italy
⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
⁷Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
⁸International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
⁹Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
¹⁰Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies (IPNS), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
¹¹Department of Physics and Center for High Energy and High Field Physics (CHiP), National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
¹²Department of Physics, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan
¹³Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California 93108, USA
¹⁴CNRS-UCB International Research Laboratory, Centre Pierre Binétruy, IRL 2007, CPB-IN2P3, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
¹⁵Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Physics Division, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
¹⁶Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
¹⁷Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
¹⁸Research Center for the Early Universe, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
¹⁹Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
²⁰School of Physics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
²¹Center for Dark Cosmology and Gravitation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0319, USA
²²National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiangmai 50180, Thailand
²³Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (RIIS), Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
²⁴Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
²⁵Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

^*Contact author: tadkins@berkeley.edu
^†Contact author: objeong@lbl.gov
^‡Contact author: mmurata@cmb.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043044 – Published 20 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9wqc-tgzq

Abstract

We present a search for polarization oscillation of the Crab Nebula, also known as Tau A, at millimeter wavelengths using observations with the Simons Array, the successor experiment to POLARBEAR. We follow up on previous work by POLARBEAR using 90 GHz band data of the 2023 observing season of the Simons Array to evaluate the variability of Tau A’s polarization angle. Tau A is widely used as a polarization angle calibration source in millimeter-wave astronomy, and thus it is necessary to validate the stability. Additionally, an interesting application of the time-resolved polarimetry of Tau A is to search for axionlike particles (ALPs). We do not detect a global signal across the frequencies considered in this analysis and place a median 95% upper bound of polarization oscillation amplitude $A < 0.1 2 °$ over oscillation frequencies from $3.39 {yr}^{- 1}$ to $1.50 {day}^{- 1}$ . This constrains the ALP-photon coupling at a median 95% upper bound of $g_{a γ γ} < 3.84 \times 10^{- 12} \times (m_{a} / 10^{- 21} eV)$ in the mass range from $4.4 \times 10^{- 22}$ to $7.2 \times 10^{- 20} eV$ , assuming the ALP constitutes all of dark matter, its field is a stochastic Gaussian field, and it is the sole source of Tau A’s polarization angle oscillation. Additionally, we do not detect signal at the frequencies where $2.5 σ$ hints were previously reported by POLARBEAR, but we do not exclude these signals at the 95% confidence level.

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Constraints on the polarization angle oscillations of the Crab Nebula with the Simons Array and its applications to the search for axionlike particles

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Constraints on the polarization angle oscillations of the Crab Nebula with the Simons Array and its applications to the search for axionlike particles

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