Axion-like Dark Matter Search with Space-based Gravitational Wave Detectors

2025/04/14 by Yao, Run-Min, Bi, Xiao-Jun, Yin, Peng-Fei +1 · 4 citations
#Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2504.10083

Abstract

We propose a novel modification to the optical benches of space-based gravitational wave detectors (SGWDs) to enable the detection of axion-like dark matter (ALDM)-induced birefringence without altering the polarization of inter-spacecraft laser links. Our design introduces an auxiliary interferometer to convert polarization modulation into measurable phase shifts. Analytical expressions for sensitivity to the ALDM-photon coupling are derived for various time-delay interferometry (TDI) combinations. Projected sensitivity curves demonstrate complementary coverage across the ALDM mass range 10^-19∼10^-14eV. This approach preserves the original interferometric stability while enabling new physics capabilities for SGWDs.

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