Searching for axion stars and $Q$-balls with a terrestrial magnetometer network
- Kimball, D. F. Jackson Department of Physics, California State University?East Bay, Hayward, Cal USA
- Budker, D. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany - Helmholtz Institut Mainz, Germany - Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal USA - Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Cal USA
- Eby, J. Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Ohi USA - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Ill USA
- Pospelov, M. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Canada - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
- Pustelny, Szymon Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
- Scholtes, Theo Physics Department, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
- Stadnik, Y. V. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany - Helmholtz Institut Mainz, Germany
- Weis, Antoine Physics Department, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
- Wickenbrock, A. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany
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07.02.2018
Published in:
- Physical Review D. - 2018, vol. 97, no. 4, p. 043002
English
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.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences et de médecine
- Department
- Département de Physique
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Physics
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 309106
- DOI 10.1103/PhysRevD.97.043002
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/306566
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