Progress on the ARIADNE axion experiment

The QCD axion is a particle postulated to exist to explain the lack of Charge-Parity (CP) violation in the strong interactions, and the associated unexpected smallness of the neutron electric dipole moment. It also happens that the axion could constitute all or part of the Dark matter in the universe, thus making it an “economical” solution to some of the greatest puzzles in cosmology and high-energy physics. While the focus in the community has mainly been on cosmic axion searches, axions can also generate novel spin-dependent short-range forces between nuclei in table-top experiments. The Axion Resonant InterAction Detection Experiment (ARIADNE) is a collaborative effort to search for the QCD axion, using a technique based on nuclear magnetic resonance. The aim is to detect axion-mediated short-range interactions between laser-polarized 3He nuclei and an unpolarized tungsten source mass. The experiment has the potential to probe deep within the theoretically interesting regime for the QCD axion in the mass range of 0.01-10 meV. In this talk I will discuss the basic principle of the experiment and the current experimental status.