Stochastic Wave Dark Matter with Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray Pulsar Timing Array

Abstract

Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) can detect disturbances in the fabric of spacetime on a galactic scale by monitoring the arrival time of pulses from millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Recent advancements have enabled the use of $\gamma$-ray radiation emitted by MSPs, in addition to radio waves, for PTA experiments. Wave dark matter (DM), a prominent class of DM candidates, can be detected with PTAs due to its periodic perturbations of the spacetime metric. In response to this development, we perform in this Letter a first analysis of applying the $\gamma$-ray PTA to detect the ultralight axion-like wave DM, with the data of Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT). Despite its much smaller collecting area, the Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray PTA demonstrates a promising sensitivity potential. We show that the upper limits not far from those of the dedicated radio-PTA projects can be achieved. Moreover, we initiate a cross-correlation analysis using the data of two Fermi-LAT pulsars. The cross-correlation of phases, while carrying key information on the source of the spacetime perturbations, has been ignored in the existing data analyses for the wave DM detection with PTAs. Our analysis indicates that taking this information into account can improve the sensitivity to wave DM by $\gtrsim 50\%$ at masses below $10^{-23}$ eV.

arXiv comment11 pages, 4 figures. Published version

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Probing Stochastic Ultralight Dark Matter with Space-based Gravitational-Wave Interferometers
• Ultralight Dark Matter Statistics for Pulsar Timing Detection
• Pulsar Polarization Array Limits on Ultralight Axion-like Dark Matter
• Probing light scalars with not quite black holes
• On Pulsar Timing Detection of Ultralight Vector Dark Matter
• Probing Ultralight Axion-like Dark Matter: A Pulsar Timing Arrays-Pulsar Polarization Arrays Synergy
• Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars: Off-pulse Emission Characteristics, Phase-Resolved Pseudo-Luminosity--Cutoff Energy Correlation, and High-energy Pulsed Emission
• Ultralight scalar dark matter versus nonadiabatic perfect fluid dark matter in pulsar timing
• Probing Quadratically Coupled Ultralight Dark Matter with Pulsar Timing Arrays