New Upper Bounds on Exotic Neutron Spin-Electron Spin Interactions via Neutron Spin Rotation Measurements in a Compensated Ferrimagnet
We report a search for exotic spin-spin interactions between neutrons and electrons which could signal new physics beyond the Standard Model using slow neutron polarimetric imaging through a dense medium of polarized electrons. Our dense polarized electron target is a ferrimagnet held at its magnetic compensation temperature, which realizes a polarized electron ensemble with zero net magnetization. We sought the spin rotation of transversely polarized neutrons from a neutron spin-electron spin interaction of the form $V_2=-g_A^eg_A^n\frac{\hbar c}{4\pi}\vec\sigma_e\cdot\vec\sigma_n\frac{e^{-r/\lambda_c}}{r}$, where $g_{A}^{e}$ and $g_{A}^{n}$ are the electron and neutron axial couplings, $\vec{\sigma_e}$ and $\vec{\sigma_n}$ are the electron and neutron spin, and $\lambda_c$ is the interaction range for an exotic axial vector interaction from massive spin-1 boson exchange of mass $\hbar c/\lambda_c$. The resulting average neutron spin rotation angle per unit length, $\frac{d\bar{\phi}_{F5}}{dz}=[0.41\pm6.30\ (stat.)\pm4.4\ (sys.)]\times10^{-3}$ rad/m, is consistent with zero. Our novel approach improves the previous upper limits on the coupling constant product $g_A^eg_A^n$ by several orders of magnitude in the poorly explored $10^{-8}\leq\lambda_c\leq10^{-2}$ range.