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:arXiv.org 2017-10
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:
Couplings
Dark matter
Initial conditions
Magnetometers
Stars
Universe
Online Access:Get full text
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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:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1710.04323