TY - UNPB

T1 - Implications of the laser excitation of the Th-229 nucleus for dark matter searches

AU - Fuchs, Elina

AU - Kirk, Fiona

AU - Madge, Eric

AU - Paranjape, Chaitanya

AU - Peik, Ekkehard

AU - Perez, Gilad

AU - Ratzinger, Wolfram

AU - Tiedau, Johannes

N1 - 14 pages, 6 figures

PY - 2024/7/22

Y1 - 2024/7/22

N2 - The recent laser excitation of the low-lying Th-229 isomer transition is starting a revolution in ultralight dark matter searches. The enhanced sensitivity of this transition to the large class of dark matter models dominantly coupling to quarks and gluons will ultimately allow us to probe coupling strengths eight orders of magnitude smaller than the current bounds from optical atomic clocks, which are mainly sensitive to dark matter couplings to electrons and photons. We argue that, with increasing precision, observations of the Th-229 excitation spectrum will soon give world-leading constraints. Using data from the pioneering laser excitation of Th-229 by Tiedau et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 182501 (2024)], we present a first dark matter search in the excitation spectrum. While the exclusion limits of our detailed study of the lineshape are still below the sensitivity of currently operating clock experiments, we project the measurement of Zhang et al. [arXiv:2406.18719 [physics.atom-ph]] to surpass it.

AB - The recent laser excitation of the low-lying Th-229 isomer transition is starting a revolution in ultralight dark matter searches. The enhanced sensitivity of this transition to the large class of dark matter models dominantly coupling to quarks and gluons will ultimately allow us to probe coupling strengths eight orders of magnitude smaller than the current bounds from optical atomic clocks, which are mainly sensitive to dark matter couplings to electrons and photons. We argue that, with increasing precision, observations of the Th-229 excitation spectrum will soon give world-leading constraints. Using data from the pioneering laser excitation of Th-229 by Tiedau et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 182501 (2024)], we present a first dark matter search in the excitation spectrum. While the exclusion limits of our detailed study of the lineshape are still below the sensitivity of currently operating clock experiments, we project the measurement of Zhang et al. [arXiv:2406.18719 [physics.atom-ph]] to surpass it.

KW - hep-ph

KW - nucl-ex

KW - physics.atom-ph

M3 - Preprint

BT - Implications of the laser excitation of the Th-229 nucleus for dark matter searches

ER -