Searching for Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter with Clocks in Low Earth Orbit

arXiv:2601.16259 · hep-ph, astro-ph.CO · Submitted 2026-01-22 · Read on arXiv

hep-ph, astro-ph.CO

Submitted: 2026-01-22

Updated: 2026-08-26

Comments: 30 pages, 9 figures. V2: updated figures; conclusions unchanged. Published in JHEP

License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

Terminology

• Standard Model — 6× in this paper
• Anisotropy — 4× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• International Space Station — 4× in this paper
• Accuracy — 3× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Low Earth Orbits — 3× in this paper
• Abundance — 1× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Benchmark — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis — 1× in this paper
• Coherence Length — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Topological Defects — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Velocity Dispersion — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes

Sources

• New Horizons: Scalar and Vector Ultralight Dark Matter
• Torsion-balance tests of the weak equivalence principle
• The MICROSCOPE mission: first results of a space test of the Equivalence Principle
• MICROSCOPE mission: final results of the test of the Equivalence Principle
• The Phenomenology of Quadratically Coupled Ultra Light Dark Matter
• Violation of the equivalence principle from light scalar dark matter
• Wake forces in a background of quadratically coupled mediators
• Detecting Ultralight Dark Matter with Matter Effect
• Constraints on Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter with Quadratic Couplings
• A Time-Varying Fine Structure Constant from Naturally Ultralight Dark Matter
• Natural Ultralight Dark Matter: The Quadratic Twin
• New bounds on macroscopic scalar-field topological defects from non-transient signatures due to environmental dependence and spatial variations of the fundamental constants
• Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks
• Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules
• Searching for dark matter with the Th-229 nuclear lineshape from laser spectroscopy
• Probing New Forces with Nuclear Clocks
• Intensity interferometry for ultralight bosonic dark matter detection
• Momentum and Matter Matter for Axion Dark Matter Matters on Earth
• Enhanced Axion-wind near Earth's Surface
• Background-Enhanced Axion Force by Axion Dark Matter

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• Probing Memory-Burdened Primordial Black Holes with High-Energy Neutrinos
• Enhanced Dark Matter Quantum Sensing via Phase-Space Geometric Interferometry
• Axions as Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Dark Radiation