Abstract
A novel search technique for ultralight dark matter has been developed and initially carried out over a limited range of frequency in L-band, utilizing the recent Breakthrough Listen public data release of three years of observation with the Green Bank Telescope. The search concept depends only on the assumption of decay or annihilation of virialized dark matter leading to a quasi-monochromatic radio line, and additionally that the frequency and intensity of the line be consistent with very general expected properties of the phase space of our Milky Way halo. Specifically, the search selects for a line which exhibits a Doppler shift with position according to the solar motion through a static galactic halo, and similarly varies in intensity with position with respect to the halo profile. The analysis of the full L-, S-, C- and X-band dataset by this method is currently underway.
Highlights
While the existence of the dark matter has been firmly established, only limited progress has been made regarding its identification
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ANALYSIS. This is not the first search for dark matter based on its decay to a quasi-monochromatic radio line (Blout et al 2001, Foster et al 2020), and future radio searches are under study
This study conducted over a limited frequency range in L-band establishes the feasibility of a selective and sensitive search for a broad, isotropic dark matter signal based on only very general properties of the halo
Summary
This search focuses on the possible radiative decay or annihilation of ultralight dark matter within our Milky Way galactic halo, leading to a quasi-monochromatic radio line (∆ν/ν ≈ 10−3). The signal should reflect the spatial distribution as represented by a standard halo model; the signal power should follow the line-integrated density of the halo ρ for darkmatter decay, or ρ2 for annihilation or any other twobody process producing a photon. This implies that in an all-sky data set, a radio line representing a real dark matter signal should be maximized toward the galactic center, (0◦, 0◦), minimized looking outward, and roughly symmetric around that axis. What for convenience we refer to as annihilation subsumes all two-body initial states, including annihilation proper χ + χ → φ + γ as well as Compton-like processes χ + ξ → φ + γ, where ξ and φ represent any standard model or beyond-standard model particles; see Figure 1
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