Asteroids for ultralight dark-photon dark-matter detection
Abstract
Gravitational-wave (GW) detectors that monitor fluctuations in the separation between inertial test masses (TMs) are sensitive to new forces acting on those TMs. Ultralight dark-photon dark matter (DPDM) coupled to U (1 )B or U (1 )B-L charges supplies one such force that oscillates with a frequency set by the DPDM mass. GW detectors operating in different frequency bands are thus sensitive to different DPDM mass ranges. A recent GW detection proposal based on monitoring the separation of certain asteroids in the inner Solar System would have sensitivity to μ Hz frequencies [M. A. Fedderke et al., Asteroids for μ Hz gravitational-wave detection, Phys. Rev. D 105, 103018 (2022), 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.103018]. In this paper, we show how that proposal would also enable access to new parameter space for DPDM coupled to B [respectively, B -L ] charges in the mass range 5 [9 ]×10-21 eV ≲mDM≲2 ×10-19 eV , with peak sensitivities about a factor of 500 [50] beyond current best limits on ϵB [ϵB -L] at mDM∼2 ×10-19 eV . Sensitivity could be extended up to mDM∼2 ×10-18 eV only if noise issues associated with asteroid rotational motion could be overcome.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- February 2023
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.043004
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2210.09324
- Bibcode:
- 2023PhRvD.107d3004F
- Keywords:
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- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 1 figure. Published version