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Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks

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arxiv 1405.2925 v2 pith:IMX7USW2 submitted 2014-05-12 hep-ph hep-exphysics.atom-phphysics.optics

Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks

classification hep-ph hep-exphysics.atom-phphysics.optics
keywords clocksdilatonultralightatomiccouplingscurrentdarkdilatonic
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We propose an experiment to search for ultralight scalar dark matter (DM) with dilatonic interactions. Such couplings can arise for the dilaton as well as for moduli and axion-like particles in the presence of CP violation. Ultralight dilaton DM acts as a background field that can cause tiny but coherent oscillations in Standard Model parameters such as the fine structure constant and the proton-electron mass ratio. These minute variations can be detected through precise frequency comparisons of atomic clocks. Our experiment extends current searches for drifts in fundamental constants to the well-motivated high-frequency regime. Our proposed setups can probe scalars lighter than 10^-15 eV with discovery potential of dilatonic couplings as weak as 10^-11 times the strength of gravity, improving current equivalence principle bounds by up to 8 orders of magnitude. We point out potential 10^4 sensitivity enhancements with future optical and nuclear clocks, as well as possible signatures in gravitational wave detectors. Finally, we discuss cosmological constraints and astrophysical hints of ultralight scalar DM, and show they are complimentary to and compatible with the parameter range accessible to our proposed laboratory experiments.

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Cited by 9 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Background-Induced Forces from Quadratically Coupled Ultralight Dark Matter

    hep-ph 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Earth screening of quadratically coupled ultralight dark matter produces a multi-band frequency structure in the induced force whose sideband amplitudes vary annually, enabling improved constraints from MICROSCOPE and...

  2. Is the Conventional Picture of Coherence Time Complete? Dark Matter Recoherence

    hep-ph 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Ultralight dark matter exhibits recoherence due to the solar gravitational potential, yielding formally divergent coherence times at long timescales and enhanced search sensitivity.

  3. A directional force template for quadratically coupled ultralight dark matter

    hep-ph 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Introduces a directional force template for quadratic ultralight DM couplings, recasts MICROSCOPE constraints, and estimates sensitivity improvement in the anisotropic regime.

  4. Towards theory constraints on ultralight dark matter from quantum gravity

    hep-ph 2025-10 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    In asymptotically safe gravity, dimension-five couplings of ultralight scalar dark matter to gauge field strengths vanish and are not generated perturbatively.

  5. $\phi$-Dwarfs: White Dwarfs probe Quadratically Coupled Scalars

    hep-ph 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    White dwarf mass-radius data exclude large parameter space for ultralight scalars quadratically coupled to fermions by predicting forbidden radius gaps and mass shifts toward the Chandrasekhar limit or altered maximum masses.

  6. Oscillating Imprints of Dark Matter in Mesons Decays

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Ultralight dark matter induces oscillating CKM elements that can be probed at NA62 through direct counting of meson decay events, which avoids sensitivity loss from unknown particle flux.

  7. Constraining Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter in the Galactic Center with the S2 Orbit

    hep-ph 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Using S2 star periastron precession, the work constrains ultralight scalar dark matter mass ratios to below 10^{-3} or 1 and improves quadratic coupling bounds for masses 10^{-20} to 10^{-18} eV.

  8. Ultralight Dilatonic Dark Matter

    hep-ph 2025-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Supersymmetry can stabilize an ultralight dilaton dark matter candidate, but gravity restricts its Standard Model couplings to undetectable levels, making consistent model building involved.

  9. On Searches for Gravitational Dark Matter with Quantum Sensors

    hep-ph 2019-07 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    Gravitational dark matter candidates with masses in [10^{-3}, 1] eV could produce a measurable effective time variation of the proton mass with future atomic clocks.