Searching for Scalar Dark Matter in Atoms and Astrophysical Phenomena: Variation of Fundamental Constants

TL;DR

This paper explores how scalar dark matter could cause detectable variations in fundamental constants, proposing methods using atomic clocks, interferometers, and pulsar timing, and reports improved bounds from existing measurements.

Contribution

It introduces new ways to detect scalar dark matter through its effects on fundamental constants and provides the first constraints on its interactions with massive vector bosons.

Findings

Atomic spectroscopy and BBN measurements set new bounds on scalar dark matter interactions.

Existing data improve constraints on scalar dark matter-photon and electron couplings by up to 15 orders of magnitude.

First constraints on scalar dark matter interactions with massive vector bosons.

Abstract

We propose to search for scalar dark matter via its effects on the electromagnetic fine-structure constant and particle masses. Scalar dark matter that forms an oscillating classical field produces `slow' linear-in-time drifts and oscillating variations of the fundamental constants, while scalar dark matter that forms topological defects produces transient-in-time variations of the constants of Nature. These variations can be sought for with atomic clock, laser interferometer and pulsar timing measurements. Atomic spectroscopy and Big Bang nucleosynthesis measurements already give improved bounds on the quadratic interaction parameters of scalar dark matter with the photon, electron, and light quarks by up to 15 orders of magnitude, while Big Bang nucleosynthesis measurements provide the first such constraints on the interaction parameters of scalar dark matter with the massive vector bosons.