DALI sensitivity to streaming axion dark matter

TL;DR

The paper discusses the DALI experiment's potential to detect fine-grained axion dark matter streams within the Solar System, highlighting its sensitivity across a broad mass range.

Contribution

It evaluates DALI's capability to detect axion streams, extending the experimental scope beyond virialized dark matter to include coherent fine-grained structures.

Findings

DALI can detect axion streams within a two-decade mass range.

Sensitivity spans the coupling strength window for representative axion models.

The experiment is promising for probing axion substructures in the Solar System.

Abstract

Dark matter substructures emerge naturally in a scenario in which the axion angular field acquires propagating degrees of freedom in a post-inflationary Universe. The DALI experiment is a new generation wavy dark matters interferometer currently in prototyping. Although DALI's main objective is to explore the virialized DM in our Galaxy, to a large degree in this article we explore the prospect for detection of fine grained streams made of axions that would enter the Solar System, as suggested by previous work. We find that DALI will have a sensitivity to encounters with these coherent objects that fully spans the window defined by the coupling strength to photons of representative axion models over a stacked bandwidth of two decades in mass.