Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review

Authors

  • Sander M. Vermeulen
  • Philip Relton
  • Hartmut Grote
  • Vivien Raymond
  • Christoph Affeldt
  • Fabio Bergamin
  • Aparna Bisht
  • Marc Brinkmann
  • Karsten Danzmann
  • Suresh Doravari
  • Volker Kringel
  • James Lough
  • Harald Lück
  • Moritz Mehmet
  • Nikhil Mukund
  • Séverin Nadji
  • Emil Schreiber
  • Borja Sorazu
  • Kenneth A. Strain
  • Henning Vahlbruch
  • Michael Weinert
  • Benno Willke
  • Holger Wittel

Research Organisations

External Research Organisations

  • Cardiff University
  • Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
  • University of Glasgow
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)424-428
Number of pages5
JournalNATURE
Volume600
Issue number7889
Early online date15 Dec 2021
Publication statusPublished - 16 Dec 2021

Abstract

The nature of dark matter remains unknown to date; several candidate particles are being considered in a dynamically changing research landscape. Scalar field dark matter is a prominent option that is being explored with precision instruments such as atomic clocks and optical cavities. Here we report on the first direct search for scalar field dark matter utilising a gravitational-wave detector operating beyond the quantum shot-noise limit. We set new upper limits for the coupling constants of scalar field dark matter as a function of its mass by excluding the presence of signals that would be produced through the direct coupling of this dark matter to the beamsplitter of the GEO\,600 interferometer. The new constraints improve upon bounds from previous direct searches by more than six orders of magnitude and are more stringent than limits obtained in tests of the equivalence principle by up to four orders of magnitude. Our work demonstrates that scalar field dark matter can be probed or constrained with direct searches using gravitational-wave detectors and highlights the potential of quantum-enhanced interferometry for dark matter detection.

Keywords

    gr-qc, hep-ph

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector. / Vermeulen, Sander M.; Relton, Philip; Grote, Hartmut et al.
In: NATURE, Vol. 600, No. 7889, 16.12.2021, p. 424-428.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review

Vermeulen, SM, Relton, P, Grote, H, Raymond, V, Affeldt, C, Bergamin, F, Bisht, A, Brinkmann, M, Danzmann, K, Doravari, S, Kringel, V, Lough, J, Lück, H, Mehmet, M, Mukund, N, Nadji, S, Schreiber, E, Sorazu, B, Strain, KA, Vahlbruch, H, Weinert, M, Willke, B & Wittel, H 2021, 'Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector', NATURE, vol. 600, no. 7889, pp. 424-428. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04031-y
Vermeulen, S. M., Relton, P., Grote, H., Raymond, V., Affeldt, C., Bergamin, F., Bisht, A., Brinkmann, M., Danzmann, K., Doravari, S., Kringel, V., Lough, J., Lück, H., Mehmet, M., Mukund, N., Nadji, S., Schreiber, E., Sorazu, B., Strain, K. A., ... Wittel, H. (2021). Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector. NATURE, 600(7889), 424-428. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04031-y
Vermeulen SM, Relton P, Grote H, Raymond V, Affeldt C, Bergamin F et al. Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector. NATURE. 2021 Dec 16;600(7889):424-428. Epub 2021 Dec 15. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04031-y
Vermeulen, Sander M. ; Relton, Philip ; Grote, Hartmut et al. / Direct limits for scalar field dark matter from a gravitational-wave detector. In: NATURE. 2021 ; Vol. 600, No. 7889. pp. 424-428.
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AU - Vermeulen, Sander M.

AU - Relton, Philip

AU - Grote, Hartmut

AU - Raymond, Vivien

AU - Affeldt, Christoph

AU - Bergamin, Fabio

AU - Bisht, Aparna

AU - Brinkmann, Marc

AU - Danzmann, Karsten

AU - Doravari, Suresh

AU - Kringel, Volker

AU - Lough, James

AU - Lück, Harald

AU - Mehmet, Moritz

AU - Mukund, Nikhil

AU - Nadji, Séverin

AU - Schreiber, Emil

AU - Sorazu, Borja

AU - Strain, Kenneth A.

AU - Vahlbruch, Henning

AU - Weinert, Michael

AU - Willke, Benno

AU - Wittel, Holger

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgements We thank Y. Stadnik and Y. Michimura for discussion and comments on this work; D. Macleod and P. Hopkins for programming assistance; and M. Tröbs and G. Heinzel for permission to use their LPSD code. We are grateful for support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), grants ST/T006331/1, ST/I006285/1 and ST/L000946/1, the Leverhulme Trust, grant RPG-2019-022, and the universities of Cardiff and Glasgow in the UK, the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, the state of Lower Saxony in Germany, the Max Planck Society, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC-2123 QuantumFrontiers 390837967. This work was also partly supported by DFG grant SFB/ Transregio 7 on Gravitational Wave Astronomy. We further thank W. Grass for his years of expert infrastructure support for GEO600. This document has been assigned LIGO document number LIGO-P2100053.

PY - 2021/12/16

Y1 - 2021/12/16

N2 - The nature of dark matter remains unknown to date; several candidate particles are being considered in a dynamically changing research landscape. Scalar field dark matter is a prominent option that is being explored with precision instruments such as atomic clocks and optical cavities. Here we report on the first direct search for scalar field dark matter utilising a gravitational-wave detector operating beyond the quantum shot-noise limit. We set new upper limits for the coupling constants of scalar field dark matter as a function of its mass by excluding the presence of signals that would be produced through the direct coupling of this dark matter to the beamsplitter of the GEO\,600 interferometer. The new constraints improve upon bounds from previous direct searches by more than six orders of magnitude and are more stringent than limits obtained in tests of the equivalence principle by up to four orders of magnitude. Our work demonstrates that scalar field dark matter can be probed or constrained with direct searches using gravitational-wave detectors and highlights the potential of quantum-enhanced interferometry for dark matter detection.

AB - The nature of dark matter remains unknown to date; several candidate particles are being considered in a dynamically changing research landscape. Scalar field dark matter is a prominent option that is being explored with precision instruments such as atomic clocks and optical cavities. Here we report on the first direct search for scalar field dark matter utilising a gravitational-wave detector operating beyond the quantum shot-noise limit. We set new upper limits for the coupling constants of scalar field dark matter as a function of its mass by excluding the presence of signals that would be produced through the direct coupling of this dark matter to the beamsplitter of the GEO\,600 interferometer. The new constraints improve upon bounds from previous direct searches by more than six orders of magnitude and are more stringent than limits obtained in tests of the equivalence principle by up to four orders of magnitude. Our work demonstrates that scalar field dark matter can be probed or constrained with direct searches using gravitational-wave detectors and highlights the potential of quantum-enhanced interferometry for dark matter detection.

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