Searching for Ultralight Dark Matter with Optical Cavities

Area of Science:

• * Astrophysics
• * Particle Physics
• * Metrology

Background:

• * Dark matter (DM) remains a significant mystery in cosmology.
• * Virialized ultralight fields (VULFs) are a theoretical dark matter candidate.
• * VULFs may cause oscillations in fundamental constants, affecting physical dimensions.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To explore the use of optical cavities for detecting VULF dark matter.
• * To propose a novel experimental approach for probing VULF DM.
• * To estimate the sensitivity and unexplored parameter space of the proposed method.

Main Methods:

• * Utilizing optical cavities as sensitive probes.
• * Performing differential strain measurements on rigid and suspended-mirror cavities.
• * Searching for oscillations in cavity length corresponding to VULF Compton frequencies.

Main Results:

• * The proposed method can search for VULF dark matter.
• * Differential strain measurements can reveal VULF-induced length oscillations.
• * Over 2 orders of magnitude of unexplored VULF DM phase space can be probed.

Conclusions:

• * Optical cavities offer a promising avenue for dark matter detection.
• * The proposed experiment can probe VULF dark matter in the audible frequency range.
• * This research expands the search space for ultralight dark matter candidates.