Probing fast oscillating scalar dark matter with atoms and molecules

Dionysios Antypas*, Oleg Tretiak, Ke Zhang, Antoine Garcon, Gilad Perez, Mikhail G. Kozlov, Stephan Schiller, Dmitry Budker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Light scalar dark matter (DM) with scalar couplings to matter is expected within several scenarios to induce variations in the fundamental constants of nature. Such variations can be searched for, among other ways, via atomic spectroscopy. Sensitive atomic observables arise primarily due to possible changes in the fine-structure constant or the electron mass. Most of the searches to date have focused on slow variations of the constants (i.e. modulation frequencies <1 Hz). In a recent experiment (2019 Phys. Rev. Lett. 123 141102) called weekend relaxion-search laboratory (WReSL), we reported on a direct search for rapid variations in the radio-frequency band. Such a search is particularly motivated within a class of relaxion DM models. We discuss the WReSL experiment, report on progress toward improved measurements of rapid fundamental constant variations, and discuss the planned extension of the work to molecules, in which rapid variations of the nuclear mass can be sensitively searched for.
Original languageEnglish
Article number034001
Number of pages10
JournalQuantum Science and Technology
Volume6
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2021

Funding

We are grateful to R Ozeri for insightful discussions. This work was supported by the Cluster of Excellence ‛Precision Physics, Fundamental Interactions, and Structure of Matter' (PRISMA + EXC 2118/1) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the German Excellence Strategy (Project ID 39083149), by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (project Dark-OST, Grant agreement No. 695405), by the DFG Reinhart Koselleck project and by Internal University Research Funding of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. The work of MGK was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) Grant No. 19-12-00157. The work of GP is supported by Grants from BSF-NSF, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel research award, GIF, ISF, Minerva, Yeda-Sela-SABRA-WRC, and the Segre Research Award.

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