New Macroscopic Forces mediated by Axion Interactions

Abstract

Very light and weakly-coupled new-physics particles, like axion, may manifest themselves as long-range forces between ordinary matter, such as nucleons and electrons. Such new forces can be searched for by means of a variety of experiments. In this thesis, we revisit the computation of non-relativistic potentials generated by the axion, a new light pseudo-scalar particle interacting with the Standard Model. We will use a general lagrangian to parametrize the new interactions between axions and ordinary matter. Moreover, we will improve previous results going beyond the leading order Born approximation. We amend previous results and also identify new contact terms that appear in the non-relativistic expansion