We report on a search for ultralow-mass axionlike dark matter by analyzing the ratio of the spin-precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and ${}^{199}\mathrm{Hg}$ atoms for an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment of the neutron and an axion-wind spin-precession effect. No signal consistent with dark matter is observed for the axion mass range ${10}^{-24}\le m_a\le {10}^{-17}\mathrm{eV}$. Our null result sets the first laboratory constraints on the coupling of axion dark matter to gluons, which improve on astrophysical limits by up to 3 orders of magnitude, and also improves on previous laboratory constraints on the axion coupling to nucleons by up to a factor of 40.

We present the new spectrometer for the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) search at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), called n2EDM. The setup is at room temperature in vacuum using ultracold neutrons. n2EDM features a large UCN double storage chamber design with neutron transport adapted to the PSI UCN source. The design builds on experience gained from the previous apparatus operated at PSI until 2017. An order of magnitude increase in sensitivity is calculated for the new baseline setup based on scalable results from the previous apparatus, and the UCN source performance achieved in 2016.

Uniaxial fatigue testing of micro-mechanical metallic specimens can provide valuable insight into damage formation. Magnetic and piezomagnetic testing are commonly used for qualitative characterization of damage in ferromagnetic specimens. Sensitive and accurate measurements with magnetic sensors is a key part of such a characterization. This work presents an experimental setup to induce structural defects in a micro-mechanical fatigue test. Simultaneously, the resulting piezomagnetic signals are measured during the complete lifetime of the tested specimen. The key component is a highly sensitive optically pumped magnetometer (OPM) used to measure the piezomagnetic hysteresis of a small specimen whose structural defects can be analyzed on a small scale by other metallographic characterization methods as well. This setup aims to quantify the magnetic signatures of damage during the fatigue process, which could enable non-destructive mechanical testing of materials. This paper reports the initial results obtained from this novel micro-magneto-mechanical test setup for a ferritic steel specimen.