No Arabic abstract
We propose a new class of bosonic dark matter (DM) detectors based on resonant absorption onto a gas of small polyatomic molecules. Bosonic DM acts on the molecules as a narrow-band perturbation, like an intense but weakly coupled laser. The excited molecules emit the absorbed energy into fluorescence photons that are picked up by sensitive photodetectors with low dark count rates. This setup is sensitive to any DM candidate that couples to electrons, photons, and nuclei, and may improve on current searches by several orders of magnitude in coupling for DM masses between 0.2 eV and 20 eV. This type of detector has excellent intrinsic energy resolution, along with several control variables---pressure, temperature, external electromagnetic fields, molecular species/isotopes---that allow for powerful background rejection methods as well as precision studies of a potential DM signal. The proposed experiment does not require usage of novel exotic materials or futuristic technologies, relying instead on the well-established field of molecular spectroscopy, and on recent advances in single-photon detection. Cooperative radiation effects, which arise due to the large spatial coherence of the nonrelativistic DM field in certain detector geometries, can tightly focus the DM-induced fluorescence photons in a direction that depends on the DMs velocity, possibly permitting a detailed reconstruction of the full 3D velocity distribution in our Galactic neighborhood, as well as further background rejection.
Numerous theories extending beyond the standard model of particle physics predict the existence of bosons that could constitute the dark matter (DM) permeating the universe. In the standard halo model (SHM) of galactic dark matter the velocity distribution of the bosonic DM field defines a characteristic coherence time $tau_c$. Until recently, laboratory experiments searching for bosonic DM fields have been in the regime where the measurement time $T$ significantly exceeds $tau_c$, so null results have been interpreted as constraints on the coupling of bosonic DM to standard model particles with a bosonic DM field amplitude $Phi_0$ fixed by the average local DM density. However, motivated by new theoretical developments, a number of recent searches probe the regime where $Tlltau_c$. Here we show that experiments operating in this regime do not sample the full distribution of bosonic DM field amplitudes and therefore it is incorrect to assume a fixed value of $Phi_0$ when inferring constraints on the coupling strength of bosonic DM to standard model particles. Instead, in order to interpret laboratory measurements (even in the event of a discovery), it is necessary to account for the stochastic nature of such a virialized ultralight field (VULF). The constraints inferred from several previous null experiments searching for ultralight bosonic DM were overestimated by factors ranging from 3 to 10 depending on experimental details, model assumptions, and choice of inference framework.
We present a novel mechanism for Sommerfeld enhancement for dark matter interactions without the need for light mediators. Considering a model for two-component scalar dark matter with a triple coupling, we find that there appears an $u$-channel resonance in dark matter elastic scattering. From the sum of the corresponding ladder diagrams, we obtain a Bethe-Salpeter equation with a delay term and identify the Sommerfeld factor for two-component dark matter from the effective Yukawa potential for the first time. We discuss the implications of our results for enhancing dark matter self-scattering and annihilation.
We present a new class of direct detection signals; absorption of fermionic dark matter. We enumerate the operators through dimension six which lead to fermionic absorption, study their direct detection prospects, and summarize additional constraints on their suppression scale. Such dark matter is inherently unstable as there is no symmetry which prevents dark matter decays. Nevertheless, we show that fermionic dark matter absorption can be observed in direct detection and neutrino experiments while ensuring consistency with the observed dark matter abundance and required lifetime. For dark matter masses well below the GeV scale, dedicated searches for these signals at current and future experiments can probe orders of magnitude of unexplored parameter space.
We propose an approach to search for axion dark matter with a specially designed superconducting radio frequency cavity, targeting axions with masses $m_a lesssim 10^{-6} text{ eV}$. Our approach exploits axion-induced transitions between nearly degenerate resonant modes of frequency $sim$ GHz. A scan over axion mass is achieved by varying the frequency splitting between the two modes. Compared to traditional approaches, this allows for parametrically enhanced signal power for axions lighter than a GHz. The projected sensitivity covers unexplored parameter space for QCD axion dark matter for $10^{-8} text{ eV} lesssim m_a lesssim10^{-6} text{ eV}$ and axion-like particle dark matter as light as $m_a sim 10^{-14} text{ eV}$.
Axion is a popular candidate for dark matter particles. Axionic dark matter may form Bose-Einstein condensate and may be gravitationally bound to form axion clumps. Under the presence of electromagnetic waves with frequency $omega=m_{a}/2$, where $m_{a}$ is the axion mass, a resonant enhancement may occur, causing an instability of the axion clumps. With analytical and numerical approaches, we study the resonant instability of axionic dark matter clumps with infinite homogeneous mass distribution, as well as distribution with a finite boundary. After taking realistic astrophysical environments into consideration, including gravitational redshift and plasma effects, we obtain an instability region in the axion density-clump size parameter space with given mass and coupling of axions. In particular, we show that, for axion clumps formed by the QCD axions in equilibrium, no resonant instability will occur.