Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Direct detection of ultralight dark matter bound to the Sun with space quantum sensors

Nature Astronomy volume 7, pages 113–121 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Recent advances in quantum sensors, including atomic clocks, enable searches for a broad range of dark matter candidates. The question of the dark matter distribution in the Solar system critically affects the reach of dark matter direct detection experiments. Partly motivated by the NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock and the Parker Solar Probe, we show that space quantum sensors present new opportunities for ultralight dark matter searches, especially for dark matter states bound to the Sun. We show that space quantum sensors can probe unexplored parameter space of ultralight dark matter, covering theoretical relaxion targets motivated by naturalness and Higgs mixing. If a two-clock system were able to make measurements on the interior of the solar system, it could probe this highly sensitive region directly and set very strong constraints on the existence of such a bound-state halo in our solar system. We present sensitivity projections for space-based probes of ultralight dark matter, which couples to electron, photon and gluon fields, based on current and future atomic, molecular and nuclear clocks.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Maximum SH density.
Fig. 2: Sensitivity estimate for space quantum clocks.
Fig. 3: Maximum SH density as function of distance.
Fig. 4: Maximum SH density at 0.1 au with contours.
Fig. 5: SH coherence time.

Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The code that generated the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Graham, P. W., Kaplan, D. E. & Rajendran, S. Cosmological relaxation of the electroweak scale. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 221801 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Banerjee, A., Kim, H. & Perez, G. Coherent relaxion dark matter. Phys. Rev. D 100, 115026 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Svrcek, P. & Witten, E. Axions in string theory. J. High Energy Phys. 06, 051 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Peccei, R. D., Sola, J. & Wetterich, C. Adjusting the cosmological constant dynamically: cosmons and a new force weaker than gravity. Phys. Lett. B 195, 183–190 (1987).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hu, W., Barkana, R. & Gruzinov, A. Cold and fuzzy dark matter. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1158–1161 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ely, T. A., Burt, E. A., Prestage, J. D., Seubert, J. M. & Tjoelker, R. L. Using the deep space atomic clock for navigation and science. IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 65, 950–961 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Puetzfeld, D. & Lämmerzahl, C. (eds) Relativistic Geodesy Vol. 196 (Springer, 2019).

  8. Gozzard, D. R. et al. Ultrastable free-space laser links for a global network of optical atomic clocks. Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 020801 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Yin, J. et al. Satellite-based entanglement distribution over 1200 kilometers. Science 356, 1140 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Burt, E. et al. Demonstration of a trapped-ion atomic clock in space. Nature 595, 43–47 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Liu, L. et al. In-orbit operation of an atomic clock based on laser-cooled 87Rb atoms. Nat. Commun. 9, 2760 (2018).

  12. Arvanitaki, A., Huang, J. & Van Tilburg, K. Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks. Phys. Rev. D 91, 015015 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Van Tilburg, K., Leefer, N., Bougas, L. & Budker, D. Search for ultralight scalar dark matter with atomic spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 011802 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Banerjee, A., Budker, D., Eby, J., Kim, H. & Perez, G. Relaxion stars and their detection via atomic physics. Commun. Phys. 3, 1 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Flacke, T., Frugiuele, C., Fuchs, E., Gupta, R. S. & Perez, G. Phenomenology of relaxion-Higgs mixing. J. High Energy Phys. 06, 050 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Craig, N. Naturalness: a snowmass white paper. In 2022 Snowmass Summer Study. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.05708 (2022).

  17. Banerjee, A., Kim, H., Matsedonskyi, O., Perez, G. & Safronova, M. S. Probing the relaxed relaxion at the luminosity and precision frontiers. J. High Energy Phys. 07, 153 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Maleki, L. & Prestage, J. SpaceTime Mission: clock test of relativity at four solar radii. In Gyros, Clocks, Interferometers...: Testing Relativistic Graviy in Space (Eds Lämmerzahl, C.) 369–380 (Springer, 2001).

  19. Damour, T. & Donoghue, J. F. Phenomenology of the equivalence principle with light scalars. Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 202001 (2010).

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Hees, A., Guéna, J., Abgrall, M., Bize, S. & Wolf, P. Searching for an oscillating massive scalar field as a dark matter candidate using atomic hyperfine frequency comparisons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 061301 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Wcislo, P. et al. New bounds on dark matter coupling from a global network of optical atomic clocks. Sci. Adv. 4, eaau4869 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Aharony, S. et al. Constraining rapidly oscillating scalar dark matter using dynamic decoupling. Phys. Rev. D 103, 075017 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Antypas, D. et al. Scalar dark matter in the radio-frequency band: atomic-spectroscopy search results. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 141102 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Kennedy, C. J. et al. Precision metrology meets cosmology: improved constraints on ultralight dark matter from atom-cavity frequency comparisons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 201302 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Oswald, R. et al. Search for oscillations of fundamental constants using molecular spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 031302 (2022)

  26. Bergé, J. et al. MICROSCOPE Mission: first constraints on the violation of the weak equivalence principle by a light scalar dilaton. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 141101 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Wagner, T. A., Schlamminger, S., Gundlach, J. H. & Adelberger, E. G. Torsion-balance tests of the weak equivalence principle. Class. Quant. Grav. 29, 184002 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Hees, A., Minazzoli, O., Savalle, E., Stadnik, Y. V. & Wolf, P. Violation of the equivalence principle from light scalar dark matter. Phys. Rev. D 98, 064051 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Tsai, Y.-D., Wu, Y., Vagnozzi, S. & Visinelli, L. Asteroid astrometry as a fifth-force and ultralight dark sector probe. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.04038 (2021).

  30. Veltmaat, J., Schwabe, B. & Niemeyer, J. C. Baryon-driven growth of solitonic cores in fuzzy dark matter halos. Phys. Rev. D 101, 083518 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Anderson, N. B., Partenheimer, A. & Wiser, T. D. Direct detection signatures of a primordial Solar dark matter halo. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.11016 (2020).

  32. Kaup, D. J. Klein-Gordon Geon. Phys. Rev. 172, 1331–1342 (1968).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. Pitjev, N. P. & Pitjeva, E. V. Constraints on dark matter in the solar system. Astron. Lett. 39, 141–149 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  34. Stadnik, Y. V. & Flambaum, V. V. Enhanced effects of variation of the fundamental constants in laser interferometers and application to dark-matter detection. Phys. Rev. A 93, 063630 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  35. Ludlow, A. D., Boyd, M. M., Ye, J., Peik, E. & Schmidt, P. O. Optical atomic clocks. Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 637–701 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  36. Antypas, D. et al. New horizons: scalar and vector ultralight dark matter. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.14915 (2022).

  37. Safronova, M. S. et al. Search for new physics with atoms and molecules. Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 025008 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. Kozlov, M. G., Safronova, M. S., Crespo López-Urrutia, J. R. & Schmidt, P. O. Highly charged ions: optical clocks and applications in fundamental physics. Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 045005 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  39. Peik, E. et al. Nuclear clocks for testing fundamental physics. Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 034002 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  40. Kasper, J. C. et al. Parker solar probe enters the magnetically dominated solar corona. Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 255101 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  41. Cavanaugh, J. F. et al. The mercury laser altimeter instrument for the MESSENGER Mission. Space Sci. Rev. 131, 451–479 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  42. Brewer, S. M. et al. 27Al+ quantum-logic clock with a systematic uncertainty below 10−18. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 033201 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  43. Sanner, C. et al. Optical clock comparison for Lorentz symmetry testing. Nature 567, 204–208 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  44. Bothwell, T. et al. JILA SrI optical lattice clock with uncertainty of 2.0 × 10−18. Metrologia 56, 065004 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  45. Hanneke, D., Kuzhan, B. & Lunstad, A. Optical clocks based on molecular vibrations as probes of variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio. Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 014005 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  46. Lange, R. et al. Improved limits for violations of local position invariance from atomic clock comparisons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 011102 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  47. Leefer, N., Gerhardus, A., Budker, D., Flambaum, V. V. & Stadnik, Y. V. Search for the effect of massive bodies on atomic spectra and constraints on yukawa-type interactions of scalar particles. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 271601 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Derevianko, A. & Pospelov, M. Hunting for topological dark matter with atomic clocks. Nature Phys. 10, 933 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  49. Dailey, C. et al. Quantum sensor networks as exotic field telescopes for multi-messenger astronomy. Nature Astron. 5, 150–158 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  50. Stadnik, Y. V. Comment on "Quantum sensor networks as exotic field telescopes for multi-messenger astronomy". Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.14351 (2021).

  51. Derevianko, A. et al. Fundamental physics with a state-of-the-art optical clock in space. Quantum Sci. Technol. 7, 044002 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  52. Banerjee, A. et al. Searching for Earth/Solar axion halos. J. High Energy Phys. 09, 004 (2020).

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  53. Flambaum, V. V. & Dzuba, V. A. Search for variation of the fundamental constants in atomic, molecular, and nuclear spectra. Can. J. Phys. 87, 25–33 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  54. Lange, R. et al. Improved limits for violations of local position invariance from atomic clock comparisons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 011102 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  55. Safronova, M. S., Porsev, S. G., Sanner, C. & Ye, J. Two clock transitions in neutral Yb for the highest sensitivity to variations of the fine-structure constant. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 173001 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  56. Fadeev, P., Berengut, J. C. & Flambaum, V. V. Sensitivity of 229Th nuclear clock transition to variation of the fine-structure constant. Phys. Rev. A https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.052833 (2020).

  57. Flambaum, V. V. Enhanced effect of temporal variation of the fine structure constant and the strong interaction in Th229. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 092502 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  58. Weyers, S. et al. Advances in the accuracy, stability, and reliability of the PTB primary fountain clocks. Metrologia 55, 789–805 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  59. Stuhler, J. et al. Opticlock: transportable and easy-to-operate optical single-ion clock. Measurement: Sensors 18, 100264 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  60. Keller, J., Partner, H. L., Burgermeister, T. & Mehlstäubler, T. E. Precise determination of micromotion for trapped-ion optical clocks. J. Appl. Phys. 118, 104501 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  61. Bothwell, T. et al. Resolving the gravitational redshift within a millimeter atomic sample. Nature 602, 420–424 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  62. Leibrandt, D. R., Porsev, S. G., Cheung, C. & Safronova, M. S. Prospects of a thousand-ion Sn2+ Coulomb-crystal clock with sub-10−19 inaccuracy. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.15484 (2022).

  63. Zaheer, M. H., Leibrandt, D., Hume, D. & Safronova, M. S. Quantum metrology algorithms for dark matter searches with 229 Th3+. In 53rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 67, abstr. K05.00005 (2022).

  64. Centers, G. P. et al. Stochastic fluctuations of bosonic dark matter. Nat. Commun. 12, 7321 (2021).

  65. Schioppo, M. et al. Ultrastable optical clock with two cold-atom ensembles. Nat. Photon. 11, 48–52 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  66. Bothwell, T. et al. Resolving the gravitational redshift within a millimeter atomic sample. Nature 602, 420–424 (2022).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  67. Vermeulen, S. M. et al. Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector. Nature 600, 424–428 (2021).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank K. Abazajian, A. Cooray, C. Chen, J. Feng, M. Kaplinghat, H. Kim, D. Leibrandt, G. Perez, S. Profumo and T. Tait for useful discussions. We also thank A. Case and P. Whittlesey for the detailed discussions of instrumentation and environments in space missions, especially the solar probes. We thank D. Budker, Y. Stadnik, P. Thirolf and N. Yu for comments on the manuscript. The work of Y.-D.T. is supported in part by NSF Grant PHY-2210283 and in part by Simons Foundation Grant No. 623683. Part of this document was prepared by Y.-D.T. using the resources of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a US Department of Energy, Office of Science, HEP User Facility. Fermilab is managed by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC (FRA), acting under contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359. The work of J. E. was supported by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan, and by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI grant Nos. 21H05451 and 21K20366. This work is supported in part by US NSF grants Nos. PHY-2012068 and OMA-2016244. This work is a part of the ‘Thorium Nuclear Clock’ project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 856415). Part of this work was performed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by the National Science Foundation grant no. PHY-1607611. We also thank the Simons Foundation for its generous support. J. E. thanks the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics for hospitality and the Istituto Nazionale Fisica Nuclear for partial support during the completion of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Yu-Dai Tsai

  2. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), Batavia, IL, USA

    Yu-Dai Tsai

  3. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP), University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Yu-Dai Tsai

  4. Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan

    Joshua Eby

  5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Marianna S. Safronova

  6. Joint Quantum Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Marianna S. Safronova

Authors
  1. Yu-Dai Tsai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joshua Eby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marianna S. Safronova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the writing and reviewing of the manuscript. Y.-D.T. conceived the preliminary ideas, initiated the DM study and studied further applications of space quantum clocks (including the spatial variation of fundamental constants and future applications) while cross-checking all results. J.E. analysed the properties of SHs and produced the final figures used in the manuscript. M.S.S. provided expertise on clock technologies and related sensitivity estimates.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yu-Dai Tsai, Joshua Eby or Marianna S. Safronova.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Astronomy thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary discussion sections (RELATED STUDIES IN ULDM, CLOCKS IN EARTH ORBITS AND AN EARTH-BOUND HALO), Supplementary Figure S1.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsai, YD., Eby, J. & Safronova, M.S. Direct detection of ultralight dark matter bound to the Sun with space quantum sensors. Nat Astron 7, 113–121 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01833-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01833-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing