2025/02/24 by Cleaver, Damon, McCabe, Christopher, O'Hare, Ciaran A. J. · 1 citation
#Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.17593
Ultra-heavy dark matter candidates evade traditional direct detection experiments due to their low particle flux. We explore the potential of large underwater acoustic arrays, originally developed for ultra-high energy neutrino detection, to detect ultra-heavy dark matter interactions. These particles deposit energy via nuclear scattering while traversing seawater, generating thermo-acoustic waves detectable by hydrophones. We present the first robust first-principles calculation of dark matter-induced acoustic waves, establishing a theoretical framework for signal modelling and sensitivity estimates. Our framework incorporates frequency-dependent attenuation effects, including viscous and chemical relaxation, not considered in previous calculations. A sensitivity analysis for a hypothetical 100 cubic kilometre hydrophone array in the Mediterranean Sea demonstrates that such an array could extend sensitivity to the previously unexplored mass range of 0.1-10 μg (∼1020-1023 GeV), with sensitivity to both spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions. Our results establish acoustic detection as a complementary dark matter search method, enabling searches in existing hydrophone data and informing future detector designs.