Curl up with a good $\mathbf{B}$: Detecting ultralight dark matter with differential magnetometry

Abstract

Ultralight dark matter (such as kinetically mixed dark-photon dark matter or axionlike dark matter) can source an oscillating magnetic-field signal at the Earth's surface, which can be measured by a synchronized array of ground-based magnetometers. The global signal of ultralight dark matter can be robustly predicted for low masses, when the wavelength of the dark matter is larger than the radius of the Earth, ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{DM}}\gg R$. However, at higher masses, environmental effects, such as the Schumann resonances, can become relevant, making the global magnetic-field signal $\mathbf{B}$ difficult to reliably model. In this work, we show that $\nabla \times \mathbf{B}$ is robust to global environmental details, and instead only depends on the local dark matter amplitude. We therefore propose to measure the local curl of the magnetic field at the Earth's surface, as a means for detecting ultralight dark matter with ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{DM}}\lesssim R$. As this measurement requires vertical gradients, it can be done near a hill/mountain. Our measurement scheme not only allows for a robust prediction, but also acts as a background rejection scheme for external noise sources. We show that our technique can be the most sensitive terrestrial probe of dark-photon dark matter for frequencies $10\mathrm{Hz}\le f_{A^{\prime }}\le 1\mathrm{kHz}$ (corresponding to masses $4\times 10^{-14}\mathrm{eV}\le m_{A^{\prime }}\le 4\times 10^{-12}\mathrm{eV}$). It can also achieve sensitivities to axionlike dark matter comparabe to the CAST helioscope, in the same frequency range.

arXiv comment16 pages, 3 figures. Published version

References in corpus (44)

• String Axiverse
• Axions In String Theory
• New CAST Limit on the Axion-Photon Interaction
• WISPy Cold Dark Matter
• Cosmological Relaxation of the Electroweak Scale
• Vector Dark Matter from Inflationary Fluctuations
• Dielectric Haloscopes: A New Way to Detect Axion Dark Matter
• New ALPS Results on Hidden-Sector Lightweights
• Dark Light, Dark Matter and the Misalignment Mechanism
• Dark photon limits: a handbook
• Dark Matter Direct Detection with Accelerometers
• Searching for WISPy Cold Dark Matter with a Dish Antenna
• Constraining the mass of dark photons and axion-like particles through black-hole superradiance
• Implications of Abelian Extended Gauge Structures From String Models
• Tunable axion plasma haloscopes
• Black hole superradiance of self-interacting scalar fields
• A Radio for Hidden-Photon Dark Matter Detection
• Axion and hidden photon dark matter detection with multilayer optical haloscopes
• The search for low-mass axion dark matter with ABRACADABRA-10cm
• New Constraints on Dark Photon Dark Matter with Superconducting Nanowire Detectors in an Optical Haloscope
• Light shining through walls
• Search for axion-like dark matter with ferromagnets
• The global atmospheric electrical circuit and climate
• First results of the CERN Resonant WISP Search (CROWS)
• The Cosmological Evolution of Light Dark Photon Dark Matter
• The atmospheric global electric circuit: An overview
• Dark Photon Oscillations in Our Inhomogeneous Universe
• A Search for Hidden Sector Photons with ADMX
• New constraints on light Axion-Like Particles using Chandra Transmission Grating Spectroscopy of the powerful cluster-hosted quasar H1821+643
• Updated constraints on axion-like particles from temporal information in supernova SN1987A gamma-ray data
• Predictions for Axion Couplings from ALP Cogenesis
• Self-consistent construction of virialized wave dark matter halos
• Measurement and subtraction of Schumann resonances at gravitational-wave interferometers
• Gas-rich dwarf galaxies as a new probe of dark matter interactions with ordinary matter
• Heating up the Galaxy with Hidden Photons
• Dark photon superradiance: Electrodynamics and multimessenger signals
• A Parametrically Enhanced Hidden Photon Search
• Limits from the Funk Experiment on the Mixing Strength of Hidden-Photon Dark Matter in the Visible and Near-Ultraviolet Wavelength Range
• Dark Photon Dark Matter in the Presence of Inhomogeneous Structure
• Earth as a transducer for dark-photon dark-matter detection
• Multi-Channel Data Acquisition System with Absolute Time Synchronization
• Earth as a transducer for axion dark-matter detection
• A Hunt for Magnetic Signatures of Hidden-Photon and Axion Dark Matter in the Wilderness
• Probing ultra-light dark photon from inverse Compton-like scattering

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Maglev for Dark Matter: Dark-photon and axion dark matter sensing with levitated superconductors
• Ultralight dark matter detection with levitated ferromagnets
• Search for ultralight dark matter in the SuperMAG high-fidelity dataset
• Adiabatic Conversion of ALPs into Dark Photon Dark Matter
• Light-shinning-through-thin-wall radio frequency cavities for probing dark photon
• Cavity, lumped-circuit, and spin-based detection of axion dark matter: differences and similarities
• Searching for dark photon dark matter from terrestrial magnetic fields
• Proceedings to the 27th Workshop "What Comes Beyond the Standard Models" Bled, July 8-17, 2024
• Do we understand the internal spaces of second quantized fermion and boson fields, with gravity included? Relation with strings theories
• Quark mass matrices inspired by a numerical relation