Search for domain wall dark matter with atomic clocks on board global positioning system satellites
Date
2017
Authors
Roberts, Benjamin M.
Blewitt, Geoffrey
Dailey, Conner
Murphy, Mac
Pospelov, Maxim
Rollings, Alex
Sherman, Jeff
Williams, Wyatt
Drevianko, Andrei
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Communications
Abstract
Cosmological observations indicate that dark matter makes up 85% of all matter in the universe yet its microscopic composition remains a mystery. Dark matter could arise from ultralight quantum fields that form macroscopic objects. Here we use the global positioning system as a similar to 50,000 km aperture dark matter detector to search for such objects in the form of domain walls. Global positioning system navigation relies on precision timing signals furnished by atomic clocks. As the Earth moves through the galactic dark matter halo, interactions with domain walls could cause a sequence of atomic clock perturbations that propagate through the satellite constellation at galactic velocities similar to 300 km s(-1). Mining 16 years of archival data, we find no evidence for domain walls at our current sensitivity level. This improves the limits on certain quadratic scalar couplings of domain wall dark matter to standard model particles by several orders of magnitude.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Roberts, B. M.; Blewitt, G.; Dailey, C.; Murphy, M.; Pospelov, M.; Rollings, … & Derevianko, A. (2017). Search for domain wall dark matter with atomic clocks on board global positioning system satellites. Nature Communications, 8(1195). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01440-4