2017/10/23 by D. F. Jackson Kimball, Derek F. Jackson Kimball, D. Budker +12 · 59 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Axion #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Geometry #Magnetic field #Magnetometer #Mathematics #Particle physics #Physics #Pseudoscalar #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Stars #Universe #astro-ph.IM #hep-ph #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.043002
published in Physical review. D/Physical review. D. 97(4) (American Physical Society) · 8 pages, 3 figures
openalex created_date 2017/10/20 · arxiv created 2017/10/23 · openalex publication_date 2018/02/07 · arxiv updated 2018/02/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Light (pseudo-)scalar fields are promising candidates to be the dark matter in the Universe. Under certain initial conditions in the early Universe and/or with certain types of self-interactions, they can form compact dark-matter objects such as axion stars or Q-balls. Direct encounters with such objects can be searched for by using a global network of atomic magnetometers. It is shown that for a range of masses and radii not ruled out by existing observations, the terrestrial encounter rate with axion stars or Q-balls can be sufficiently high (at least once per year) for a detection. Furthermore, it is shown that a global network of atomic magnetometers is sufficiently sensitive to pseudoscalar couplings to atomic spins so that a transit through an axion star or Q-ball could be detected over a broad range of unexplored parameter space.