- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Letters

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Muonium Spectroscopy as a Quantum Sensor for Axion Dark Matter

Feng Fang1,2, Kim Siang Khaw3, Ce Zhang4,*, Qiaoli Yang5,†, Liangwen Chen2,1,6,7,‡, Jie Yang2,1,6,7, Lei Yang2,1,6,7, and Zhiyu Sun2,1,6,7,§

  • 1Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China
  • 2Institute of Modern Physics, CAS, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 3State Key Laboratory of Dark Matter Physics, Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE), Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology (SKLPPC), Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201210, China
  • 4University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  • 5Physics Department, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
  • 6State Key Laboratory of Heavy Ion Science and Technology, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 7School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

  • *Contact author: ce.zhang@liverpool.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: qiaoliyang@jnu.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: chenlw@impcas.ac.cn
  • §Contact author: sunzhy@impcas.ac.cn
PDF

Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 111803 – Published 10 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/483j-ct1h

Abstract

High-intensity muon beams could enable a muonium-based axion search through resonant quantum transitions between hyperfine states. Combining theoretical calculations with simulation results, we demonstrate that such a muonium-based experimental approach could complement and tighten constraints on the axion-muon coupling beyond existing limits from the muon g−2 measurement over the axion mass range of 18–130  μeV. These results establish a new spectroscopic channel in muonium that enables searches for axion and axionlike particle dark matter.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (47)

  1. N. Aghanim et al. (Planck Collaboration), Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters, Astron. Astrophys. 641, A6 (2020); 652, C4(E) (2021).
  2. J. R. Bond and G. Efstathiou, Cosmic background radiation anisotropies in universes dominated by nonbaryonic dark matter, Astrophys. J. Lett. 285, L45 (1984).
  3. D. J. E. Marsh, Axion cosmology, Phys. Rep. 643, 1 (2016).
  4. P. Sikivie, Invisible axion search methods, Rev. Mod. Phys. 93, 015004 (2021).
  5. G. B. Gelmini, Light weakly interacting massive particles, Rep. Prog. Phys. 80, 082201 (2017).
  6. P. Blumer, S. Geissmann, A. J. Vargas, G. Janka, B. Ohayon, and P. Crivelli, Muonium fine structure: Theory update, tests of Lorentz violation, and experimental prospects, Eur. Phys. J. D 79, 24 (2025).
  7. C. Zhang et al., Simulation study of laser ionization of muonium by 1S-2S excitation for the muon g−2/EDM experiment at J-PARC, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Conf. Proc. 33, 011125 (2021).
  8. K. S. Tanaka et al., Development of microwave cavities for measurement of muonium hyperfine structure at J-PARC, Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2021, 053C01 (2021).
  9. Y. V. Stadnik, Searching for ultralight scalar dark matter with muonium and muonic atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 011001 (2023).
  10. C. Delaunay, B. Ohayon, and Y. Soreq, Towards an independent determination of muon g−2 from muonium spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 251801 (2021).
  11. M. Aiba et al., Science case for the new high-intensity muon beams HIMB at PSI, arXiv:2111.05788.
  12. W. Liu, M. G. Boshier, S. Dhawan, O. van Dyck, P. Egan, X. Fei, M. Grosse Perdekamp, V. W. Hughes, M. Janousch, K. Jungmann, D. Kawall, F. G. Mariam, C. Pillai, R. Prigl, G. Zu Putlitz, I. Reinhard, W. Schwarz, P. A. Thompson, and K. A. Woodle, High precision measurements of the ground state hyperfine structure interval of muonium and of the muon magnetic moment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 711 (1999).
  13. V. Meyer et al., Measurement of the 1s−2s energy interval in muonium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1136 (2000).
  14. B. Ohayon, G. Janka, I. Cortinovis, Z. Burkley, L. d. S. Borges, E. Depero, A. Golovizin, X. Ni, Z. Salman, A. Suter, C. Vigo, T. Prokscha, and P. Crivelli (Mu-MASS Collaboration), Precision measurement of the lamb shift in muonium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 011802 (2022).
  15. Y. Miyake et al., J-PARC muon facility, MUSE, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 225, 012036 (2010).
  16. J. W. G. Thomason, The ISIS spallation neutron and muon source—The first thirty-three years, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 917, 61 (2019).
  17. G. D. Maso et al., Future facilities at PSI, the High-Intensity Muon Beams (HIMB) project, Eur. Phys. J. Web Conf. 282, 01012 (2023).
  18. G. M. Marshall, Muon beams and facilities at TRIUMF, Z. Phys. C 56, S226 (1992).
  19. D. Stratakis, M. E. Convery, C. Johnstone, J. Johnstone, J. P. Morgan, D. Still, J. D. Crnkovic, V. Tishchenko, W. M. Morse, and M. J. Syphers, Accelerator performance analysis of the Fermilab Muon Campus, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 20, 111003 (2017).
  20. H. Kanda et al., Status of the cyclotron facility at research center for nuclear physics, in 22nd International Conference on Cyclotrons and their Applications (CYC2019) (JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland, 2020), p. TUC04.
  21. H.-J. Cai et al., Towards a high-intensity muon source, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 27, 023403 (2024).
  22. F. Liu et al., Simulation studies of a high-repetition-rate electron-driven surface muon beamline at SHINE, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 28, 083401 (2025).
  23. Y. Bao et al., Progress report on muon source project at CSNS, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 2462, 012034 (2023).
  24. Y. J. Kim, Current status of experimental facilities at RAON, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B 463, 408 (2020).
  25. Y. Xu et al., The feasibility study of the GeV-energy muon source based on HIAF, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 28, 053401 (2025).
  26. R. Janish and H. Ramani, Muon g−2 and EDM experiments as muonic dark matter detectors, Phys. Rev. D 102, 115018 (2020).
  27. P. Athron, K. Möhling, D. Stöckinger, and H. Stöckinger-Kim, The muon magnetic moment and physics beyond the standard model, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 148, 104225 (2026).
  28. L. Y. Wu and H. Yan, Improved limits on exotic interactions mediated by axion-like particles between muons, arXiv:2508.00504.
  29. M. A. Buen-Abad, J. Fan, M. Reece, and C. Sun, Challenges for an axion explanation of the muon g−2 measurement, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2021) 101.
  30. R. Bollig, W. DeRocco, P. W. Graham, and H.-T. Janka, Muons in supernovae: Implications for the axion-muon coupling, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 051104 (2020).
  31. R. Bollig, W. DeRocco, P. W. Graham, and H.-T. Janka, Erratum: Muons in supernovae: Implications for the axion-muon coupling [Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 051104 (2020)], Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 189901 (2021).
  32. N. Bar, K. Blum, and G. D’Amico, Is there a supernova bound on axions?, Phys. Rev. D 101, 123025 (2020).
  33. P. Strasser et al. (MuSEUM Collaboration), Precision measurements of muonium and muonic helium hyperfine structure at J-PARC, Eur. Phys. J. D 79, 20 (2025).
  34. Q. Yang and S. Dong, Probing dark matter axions using the hyperfine structure splitting of hydrogen atoms, Phys. Lett. B 843, 138004 (2023).
  35. G. Janka, B. Ohayon, Z. Burkley, L. Gerchow, N. Kuroda, X. Ni, R. Nishi, Z. Salman, A. Suter, M. Tuzi et al., Intense beam of metastable muonium, Eur. Phys. J. C 80, 804 (2020).
  36. V. W. Hughes, D. W. McColm, K. Ziock, and R. Prepost, Muonium. I. Muonium formation and larmor precession, Phys. Rev. A 1, 595 (1970).
  37. T. Nakajima, Spin polarization of Doppler-broadened atoms by the broadband nanosecond and transform-limited picosecond laser pulses: Case study for the muonium, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 29, 2420 (2012).
  38. N. Saito, Y. Oishi, K. Miyazaki, K. Okamura, J. Nakamura, O. A. Louchev, M. Iwasaki, and S. Wada, High-efficiency generation of pulsed Lyman-α Radiation by resonant laser wave mixing in low pressure Kr-Ar mixture, Opt. Express 24, 7566 (2016).
  39. B. Kim, S. Bae, H. Choi, S. Choi, N. Kawamura, R. Kitamura, H. S. Ko, Y. Kondo, T. Mibe, M. Otani, G. P. Razuvaev, and E. Won, Development of a microchannel plate based beam profile monitor for a re-accelerated muon beam, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 899, 22 (2018).
  40. K. Sedlak, R. Scheuermann, T. Shiroka, A. Stoykov, A. R. Raselli, and A. Amato, musrsim and musrsimana—Simulation tools for muSR instruments, Phys. Procedia 30, 61 (2012).
  41. S. Agostinelli et al. (GEANT4 Collaboration), geant4—A simulation toolkit, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 506, 250 (2003).
  42. K. S. Khaw, A. Antognini, P. Crivelli, K. Kirch, E. Morenzoni, Z. Salman, A. Suter, and T. Prokscha, geant4 simulation of the PSI LEM beam line: Energy loss and muonium formation in thin foils and the impact of unmoderated muons on the μSR spectrometer, J. Instrum. 10, P10025 (2015).
  43. A. Antognini et al., Muonium emission into vacuum from mesoporous thin films at cryogenic temperatures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 143401 (2012).
  44. D. P. Aguillard et al. (Muon g−2 Collaboration), Measurement of the positive muon anomalous magnetic moment to 127 ppb, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 101802 (2025).
  45. R. Aliberti et al., The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the Standard Model: An update, Phys. Rep. 1143, 1 (2025).
  46. Y. V. Stadnik and V. V. Flambaum, Axion-induced effects in atoms, molecules, and nuclei: Parity nonconservation, anapole moments, electric dipole moments, and spin-gravity and spin-axion momentum couplings, Phys. Rev. D 89, 043522 (2014).
  47. M. S. Turner, Cosmic and local mass density of “invisible” axions, Phys. Rev. D 33, 889 (1986).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 111803– Published 10 September, 2026
  • Received 18 November 2025
  • Revised 10 June 2026
  • Accepted 18 August 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation