Detecting the QCD axion via the ferroaxionic force with piezoelectric materials

Abstract

We show that piezoelectric materials can be used to source virtual QCD axions, generating a new axion-mediated force. Spontaneous parity violation within the piezoelectric crystal combined with time-reversal violation from aligned spins provide the necessary symmetry breaking to produce an effective in-medium scalar coupling of the axion to nucleons up to 7 orders of magnitude larger than that in vacuum. We propose a detection scheme based on nuclear spin precession caused by the axion's pseudoscalar coupling to nuclear spins. This signal is resonantly enhanced when the distance between the source crystal and the spin sample is modulated at the spin precession frequency. Using this effect, future experimental setups can be sensitive to the QCD axion in the unexplored mass range from $10^{-5}\,\mathrm{eV}$ to $10^{-2}\,\mathrm{eV}$.