2024/06/05 by Jeff A. Dror, Dror, Jeff A., Sarunas Verner +1
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #History and Developments in Astronomy
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.03526
openalex publication_date 2024/06/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Ultralight dark matter induces time-dependent perturbations in the spacetime metric, enabling its gravitational direct detection. In this work, we propose using astrometry to detect dark matter. After reviewing the calculation of the metric in the presence of scalar dark matter, we study the influence of the perturbations on the apparent motion of astrophysical bodies. We apply our results to angular position measurements of quasars, whose vast distances from Earth present an opportunity to discover dark matter with a mass as low as 10-33 eV . We explore the prospects of very long baseline interferometry and optical astrometric survey measurements for detecting ultralight relics, finding that for the smallest masses, current astrometric surveys can detect dark matter moving locally with a velocity of 10-3 with energy density as low as 10 - 4 ~\rm GeV / \rm cm 3 .