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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 64: Precision Spectroscopy of Atoms and Ions IV (joint session A/Q)
Q 64.4: Talk
Friday, March 10, 2023, 12:00–12:15, F303
Improved limits for the coupling of ultralight bosonic dark matter to photons from optical atomic clock comparisons — •Melina Filzinger, Martin Steinel, Joshua Klose, Sören Dörscher, Christian Lisdat, Ekkehard Peik, and Nils Huntemann — Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig
Ultralight bosonic dark matter is expected to display coherent-wave behaviour. A hypothetical coupling of such dark matter to photons would lead to oscillations in the value of the fine-structure constant [1]. The frequency of the 2S1/2 (F=0)↔ 2F7/2 (F=3) electric-octupole transition in 171Yb+ is the most sensitive to variations of the fine structure constant among the atomic clocks currently in operation. We compare this frequency to that of the 2S1/2 (F=0)↔ 2D3/2 (F=0) electric-quadrupole transition of the same ion, as well as to that of the 1S0↔ 3P0 transition in 87Sr, both of which feature small sensitivities to variations of α. Based on these long-term measurements, we present improved constraints on temporal variations of the fine-structure constant. In particular, constraints on an oscillation with a specific frequency are translated into constraints on the scalar coupling de of bosonic dark matter with a specific mass to photons.
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 274200144 – SFB 1464 DQmat and Project-ID 390837967 – EXC-2123 QuantumFrontiers.
[1] A. Arvanitaki et al., Phys. Rev. D 91, 015015 (2015).