Searching for axion stars and Q -balls with a terrestrial magnetometer network

Light (pseudo-)scalar fields are promising candidates to be the dark matter in the Universe. Under certain initial conditions in the early Universe and/or with certain types of self-interactions, they can form compact dark-matter objects such as axion stars or Q-balls. Direct encounters with such ob...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. D 2018-02, Vol.97 (4), Article 043002
Main Authors: Jackson Kimball, D. F., Budker, D., Eby, J., Pospelov, M., Pustelny, S., Scholtes, T., Stadnik, Y. V., Weis, A., Wickenbrock, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Couplings
Dark matter
Initial conditions
INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Magnetometers
PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
Stars
Universe
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Summary:Light (pseudo-)scalar fields are promising candidates to be the dark matter in the Universe. Under certain initial conditions in the early Universe and/or with certain types of self-interactions, they can form compact dark-matter objects such as axion stars or Q-balls. Direct encounters with such objects can be searched for by using a global network of atomic magnetometers. It is shown that for a range of masses and radii not ruled out by existing observations, the terrestrial encounter rate with axion stars or Q-balls can be sufficiently high (at least once per year) for a detection. Furthermore, it is shown that a global network of atomic magnetometers is sufficiently sensitive to pseudoscalar couplings to atomic spins so that a transit through an axion star or Q-ball could be detected over a broad range of unexplored parameter space.
ISSN:2470-0010
2470-0029
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043002