Precision measurement noise asymmetry and its annual modulation as a dark matter signature [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1803.00617


Dark matter may be composed of ultralight quantum fields that form macroscopic objects. As the Earth moves through the galaxy, interactions with such objects may leave transient signatures in terrestrial experiments. These signatures may be sought by analyzing correlations between multiple devices in a distributed network. However, if the objects are small (<~10^3 km) it becomes unlikely that more than one device will be affected in a given event. Such models may, however, induce an observable asymmetry in the noise distributions of precision measurement devices, such as atomic clocks. Further, an annual modulation in this asymmetry is expected. Such an analysis may be performed very simply using existing data, and would be sensitive to models with a high event rate, even if individual events cannot be resolved. For certain models, our technique extends the discovery reach beyond that of existing experiments by many orders of magnitude.

Read this paper on arXiv…

B. Roberts and A. Derevianko
Mon, 5 Mar 18
31/45

Comments: N/A