Macroscopic Dark Matter under siege: from White Dwarf Data to Gravitational Wave Detection

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive multi-messenger approach combining white dwarf data and gravitational wave detection to constrain macroscopic dark matter candidates like Fermi-balls, significantly advancing the limits on their properties.

Contribution

It introduces a unified search strategy for Fermi-ball dark matter, updating astrophysical constraints and exploring gravitational wave signatures for the first time.

Findings

Updated white dwarf constraints on Fermi-balls.

Projected gravitational wave sensitivities can probe new parameter space.

Combined methods set the most comprehensive limits to date.

Abstract

The nature of dark matter (DM) remains a profound mystery. Macroscopic candidates, such as Fermi-balls, offer a distinct alternative to conventional particle DM, yet their low number density makes terrestrial detection challenging. In this work, we present a unified search strategy for sub-saturated Fermi-ball DM. We first revisit and significantly update astrophysical constraints from compact objects, utilizing rigorous expressions and additional white dwarf data related to ignition and subsequent supernovae. Crucially, we then explore novel signatures of Fermi-balls in future gravitational wave experiments like LISA and TianQin, performing detailed signal-to-noise ratio and Fisher matrix analyses. By combining these updated white dwarf/neutron star limits with the projected gravitational wave sensitivities, we derive the most comprehensive constraints on Fermi-ball parameter space to date, demonstrating the power of multi-messenger approaches for probing macroscopic DM.