2023 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Uncovering the Local Dark Matter Density in Axion Dark Matter Scenarios
| Project/Area Number |
21K20366
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
Eby Joshua 東京大学, カブリ数物連携宇宙研究機構, 特任研究員 (50902095)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2021-08-30 – 2024-03-31
|
| Keywords | Dark matter / Gravitational atoms / Ultralight fields / Axions / Dark matter capture / Local density |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
There were several key advances made during the research period which have greatly enhanced our understanding of the local dark matter density in the solar system. First, we showed for the first time that tracking data for asteroids can be used to set a competitive constraint on the energy density of dark matter in the solar system. We are hopeful that this work will be expanded in the future, as asteroid tracking becomes more robust and better data becomes available, allowing the possibility of a direct, gravity-only measurement of the presence of dark matter near the Earth. Second, we studied the capture of ultralight dark matter axions around astrophysical bodies. This work showed that such capture can be very efficient, even around the Sun in particular, providing a novel scenario in which the local density is strongly modified from the usual expectation. These works have critical implications for ongoing experimental searches, which take the local density value as a key input. Third, we also proposed a novel space mission with on-board quantum sensing apparatus as a tool to discover overdensities of dark matter in the solar system, in particular near the Sun where we expect the density to be large.
|
