Berry phase in axion physics, SM global structure, and generalized symmetries

Abstract

We investigate the Berry phase arising from axion-photon and axion-fermion interactions. The effective Hamiltonians in both systems share the same form, enabling a unified description of the Berry phase and providing a novel perspective on axion experiments. We conceptually propose a new photon-ring experiment for axion detection. Furthermore, we demonstrate that measuring the axion-induced Berry phase offers a unique method for probing the global structure of the Standard Model gauge group and axion-related generalized symmetries.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: Constraints on the quantized couplings $E$ and $N$ for different possible SM global structures $p = 1,2,3,6$ (up) and for realizations of higher-group symmetry and non-invertible symmetry (down). $K \equiv \mathrm{gcd}(6,36E)$ denotes the greatest common factor of $6$ and $36 E$. The constraints are adapted from Cordova:2023herChoi:2023pdpReece:2023iqnAgrawal:2023sbp. The axion-related higher-group and non-invertible symmetries mentioned here vanish for $p=6$.
• Figure 2: Sketch of the photon-ring experiment. The circular motion of photons can be realized by the optical fiber (or optical microcavity), while the resonance condition is by the birefringence medium.
• Figure 3: One loop diagrams of the axion-photon interaction.
• Figure 4: Effective interaction vertex between the axion and photon.