D16: Precision Tests of Fundamental Physics and Dark Matter Searches

Wed. April 3, 3:57 p.m. – 4:09 p.m. PDT

Ballroom B5, Floor 2

We devise and demonstrate a method to search for non-gravitational couplings of ultralight dark matter to standard model particles using space-time separated atomic clocks and cavity-stabilized lasers. By making use of space-time separated sensors, which probe different values of an oscillating dark matter field, we can search for couplings that cancel in typical local experiments. We demonstrate this method using existing data from a frequency comparison of lasers stabilized to two optical cavities connected via a 2220 km fiber link [1]. The absence of significant oscillations in the data results in constraints on the coupling of scalar dark matter to electrons, d_me, for masses between 1e-19 eV and 2e-15 eV. These are the first constraints on d_me alone in this mass range, and improve the dark matter constraints on any scalar-Fermion coupling by up to two orders of magnitude. Further, the dark matter signal for this type of experiment scales linearly with the separation of the detectors. As such, a new unique dark matter signature appears for a network of detectors. Importantly, this can be used as an independent check in the case of a positive detection.