An Haipeng, Chen Xingyao, Ge Shuailiang, Liu Jia, Luo Yan
Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China.
Center for High Energy Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Jan 31;15(1):915. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45033-4.
Ultralight dark photons and axions are well-motivated hypothetical dark matter candidates. Both dark photon dark matter and axion dark matter can resonantly convert into electromagnetic waves in the solar corona when their mass is equal to the solar plasma frequency. The resultant electromagnetic waves appear as monochromatic signals within the radio-frequency range with an energy equal to the dark matter mass, which can be detected via radio telescopes for solar observations. Here we show our search for converted monochromatic signals in the observational data collected by the high-sensitivity Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope and establish an upper limit on the kinetic mixing coupling between dark photon dark matter and photon, which can reach values as low as 10 within the frequency range of 30 - 80 MHz. This limit represents an improvement of approximately one order of magnitude better than the existing constraint from the cosmic microwave background observation. Additionally, we derive an upper limit on the axion-photon coupling within the same frequency range, which is better than the constraints from Light-Shining-through-a-Wall experiments while not exceeding the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) experiment or other astrophysical bounds.
超轻暗光子和轴子是很有吸引力的假设性暗物质候选者。当暗光子暗物质和轴子暗物质的质量等于太阳等离子体频率时,它们都能在日冕中通过共振转化为电磁波。产生的电磁波在射频范围内表现为单色信号,其能量等于暗物质质量,可通过用于太阳观测的射电望远镜进行探测。在此,我们展示了在高灵敏度低频阵列(LOFAR)望远镜收集的观测数据中对转换后的单色信号的搜索,并确定了暗光子暗物质与光子之间动力学混合耦合的上限,在30 - 80兆赫的频率范围内,该上限可低至10。这一限制比来自宇宙微波背景观测的现有约束大约提高了一个数量级。此外,我们在相同频率范围内推导出了轴子 - 光子耦合的上限,该上限优于“光穿墙”实验的约束,同时不超过欧洲核子研究中心轴子太阳望远镜(CAST)实验或其他天体物理限制。