420 research outputs found
Can dark matter induce cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants of Nature?
We demonstrate that massive fields, such as dark matter, can directly produce
a cosmological evolution of the fundamental constants of Nature. We show that a
scalar or pseudoscalar (axion-like) dark matter field , which forms a
coherently oscillating classical field and interacts with Standard Model
particles via quadratic couplings in , produces `slow' cosmological
evolution and oscillating variations of the fundamental constants. We derive
limits on the quadratic interactions of with the photon, electron and
light quarks from measurements of the primordial He abundance produced
during Big Bang nucleosynthesis and recent atomic dysprosium spectroscopy
measurements. These limits improve on existing constraints by up to 15 orders
of magnitude. We also derive limits on the previously unconstrained linear and
quadratic interactions of with the massive vector bosons from
measurements of the primordial He abundance.Comment: 7 pages. 1 figure. Version to appear in Physical Review Letters. This
final version now includes also results amalgamated from our work
arXiv:1504.0179
Reply to comment on "Searching for Topological Defect Dark Matter via Nongravitational Signatures"
In the comment of Avelino, Sousa and Lobo [arXiv:1506.06028], it is argued,
by comparing the kinetic energy of a topological defect with the overall energy
of a pulsar, that the origin of the pulsar glitch phenomenon due to the passage
of networks of topological defects through pulsars is faced with serious
difficulties. Here, we point out that topological defects may trigger pulsar
glitches within traditional scenarios, such as vortex unpinning. If the energy
transfer from a topological defect exceeds the activation energy for a single
pinned vortex, this may lead to an avalanche of unpinning of vortices and
consequently a pulsar glitch, and therefore the source of angular momentum and
energy required for a glitch event is provided by the pulsar itself. Indeed,
the activation energy for such a process can be very small (essentially zero
compared with the observed increase in the pulsar's rotational kinetic energy
at the onset of a glitch). The unpinning of a vortex by a topological defect
may occur through the passage of the defect into the core of the pulsar.Comment: 2 page
Searching for dark matter and variation of fundamental constants with laser and maser interferometry
Any slight variations in the fundamental constants of Nature, which may be
induced by dark matter or some yet-to-be-discovered cosmic field, would
characteristically alter the phase of a light beam inside an interferometer,
which can be measured extremely precisely. Laser and maser interferometry may
be applied to searches for the linear-in-time drift of the fundamental
constants, detection of topological defect dark matter through
transient-in-time effects and for a relic, coherently oscillating condensate,
which consists of scalar dark matter fields, through oscillating effects. Our
proposed experiments require either minor or no modifications of existing
apparatus, and offer extensive reach into important and unconstrained spaces of
physical parameters.Comment: 9 pages, including supplemental material, additional references adde
Improved limits on interactions of low-mass spin-0 dark matter from atomic clock spectroscopy
Low-mass (sub-eV) spin-0 dark matter particles, which form a coherently
oscillating classical field , can induce
oscillating variations in the fundamental constants through their interactions
with the Standard Model sector. We calculate the effects of such possible
interactions, which may include the linear interaction of with the Higgs
boson, on atomic and molecular transitions. Using recent atomic clock
spectroscopy measurements, we derive new limits on the linear interaction of
with the Higgs boson, as well as its quadratic interactions with the
photon and light quarks. For the linear interaction of with the Higgs
boson, our derived limits improve on existing constraints by up to orders
of magnitude.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Nuclear spin-dependent interactions: Searches for WIMP, Axion and Topological Defect Dark Matter, and Tests of Fundamental Symmetries
We calculate the proton and neutron spin contributions for nuclei using
semi-empirical methods, as well as a novel hybrid \emph{ab
initio}/semi-empirical method, for interpretation of experimental data. We
demonstrate that core-polarisation corrections to \emph{ab initio} nuclear
shell model calculations generally reduce discrepancies in proton and neutron
spin expectation values from different calculations. We derive constraints on
the spin-dependent P,T-violating interaction of a bound proton with nucleons,
which for certain ranges of exchanged pseudoscalar boson masses improve on the
most stringent laboratory limits by several orders of magnitude. We derive a
limit on the CPT and Lorentz-invariance-violating parameter
GeV, which improves on the most
stringent existing limit by a factor of 8, and demonstrate sensitivities to the
parameters and at the level GeV, which is a one order of magnitude improvement
compared to the corresponding existing sensitivities. We extend previous
analysis of nuclear anapole moment data for Cs to obtain new limits on several
other CPT and Lorentz-invariance-violating parameters: GeV, , GeV and .Comment: 8 pages. The present work is a significantly extended and improved
version of our previous work, and contains many new result
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