Possible resonance effect of axionic dark matter in Josephson junctions

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Dec 6;111(23):231801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.231801. Epub 2013 Dec 2.

Abstract

We provide theoretical arguments that dark-matter axions from the galactic halo that pass through Earth may generate a small observable signal in resonant S/N/S Josephson junctions. The corresponding interaction process is based on the uniqueness of the gauge-invariant axion Josephson phase angle modulo 2π and is predicted to produce a small Shapiro steplike feature without externally applied microwave radiation when the Josephson frequency resonates with the axion mass. A resonance signal of so far unknown origin observed by C. Hoffmann et al. [Phys. Rev. B 70, 180503(R) (2004)] is consistent with our theory and can be interpreted in terms of an axion mass m(a)c2=0.11 meV and a local galactic axionic dark-matter density of 0.05 GeV/cm3. We discuss future experimental checks to confirm the dark-matter nature of the observed signal.