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arXiv · 2306.11575

A Hunt for Magnetic Signatures of Hidden-Photon and Axion Dark Matter in the Wilderness

Abstract

Earth can act as a transducer to convert ultralight bosonic dark matter (axions and hidden photons) into an oscillating magnetic field with a characteristic pattern across its surface. Here we describe the first results of a dedicated experiment, the Search for Non-Interacting Particles Experimental Hunt (SNIPE Hunt), that aims to detect such dark-matter-induced magnetic-field patterns by performing correlated measurements with a network of magnetometers in relatively quiet magnetic environments (in the wilderness far from human-generated magnetic noise). Our experiment constrains parameter space describing hidden-photon and axion dark matter with Compton frequencies in the 0.5-5.0 Hz range. Limits on the kinetic-mixing parameter for hidden-photon dark matter represent the best experimental bounds to date in this frequency range.

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Ibrahim A. Sulai, Saarik Kalia, Ariel Arza, Itay M. Bloch, Eduardo Castro Muñoz, Christopher Fabian, Michael A. Fedderke, Madison Forseth, Brian Garthwaite, Peter W. Graham, Will Griffith, Erik Helgren, Andres Interiano-Alvarado, Brittany Karki, Abaz Kryemadhi, Andre Li, Ehsanullah Nikfar, Jason E. Stalnaker, Yicheng Wang, Derek F. Jackson Kimball. 2023-06-20. A Hunt for Magnetic Signatures of Hidden-Photon and Axion Dark Matter in the Wilderness. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.108.096026

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