Search for ultralight dark matter in the SuperMAG high-fidelity dataset

Journal Article · 26 December 2024 · Physical Review. D.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.115036 · OSTI ID:2483839

Friel, Matt ; Gjerloev, Jesper W. ; Kalia, Saarik ; Zamora, Alvaro

Ultralight dark matter, such as kinetically mixed dark-photon dark matter (DPDM) or axion-like-particle dark matter (axion DM), can source an oscillating magnetic-field signal at Earth’s surface. Previous work searched for this signal in a publicly available dataset of global magnetometer measurements maintained by the SuperMAG collaboration. This “low-fidelity” dataset reported measurements with a 1-min time resolution, allowing the search to set leading direct constraints on DPDM and axion DM with Compton frequencies $f_{\mathrm{DM}}\le 1/\left(1\min \right)$ (corresponding to masses $m_{\mathrm{DM}}\le 7\times {10}^{-17}\mathrm{eV}$ ). More recently, a dedicated experiment undertaken by the SNIPE Hunt collaboration has also searched for this same signal at higher frequencies $f_{\mathrm{DM}}\ge 0.5\mathrm{Hz}$ (or $m_{\mathrm{DM}}\ge 2\times {10}^{-15}\mathrm{eV}$ ). In this work, we search for this signal of ultralight DM in the SuperMAG “high-fidelity” dataset, which features a 1-sec time resolution, allowing us to probe the gap in parameter space between the low-fidelity dataset and the SNIPE Hunt experiment. The high-fidelity dataset exhibits lower geomagnetic noise than the low-fidelity dataset and features more data than the SNIPE Hunt experiment, making it a powerful probe of ultralight DM. Our search finds no robust DPDM or axion DM candidates. We set constraints on DPDM and axion DM parameter space for ${10}^{-3}\mathrm{Hz}\le f_{\mathrm{DM}}\le 0.98\mathrm{Hz}$ (or $4\times {10}^{-18}\mathrm{eV}\le m_{\mathrm{DM}}\le 4\times {10}^{-15}\mathrm{eV}$ ). Our results are the leading direct constraints on both DPDM and axion DM in this mass range, and our DPDM constraint surpasses the leading astrophysical constraint in a narrow range around $m_{A^{\prime }}\approx 2\times {10}^{-15}\mathrm{eV}$ . Published by the American Physical Society 2024

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: NONE; AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 2483839
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 110; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 2470-0010
• Publisher: American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English