Search for Ultralight Dark Matter from Long-Term Frequency Comparisons of Optical and Microwave Atomic Clocks.

Abstract

We search for ultralight scalar dark matter candidates that induce oscillations of the fine structure constant, the electron and quark masses, and the quantum chromodynamics energy scale with frequency comparison data between a ^{171}Yb optical lattice clock and a ^{133}Cs fountain microwave clock that span 298days with an uptime of 15.4%. New limits on the couplings of the scalar dark matter to electrons and gluons in the mass range from 10^{-22} to 10^{-20} eV/c^{2} are set, assuming that each of these couplings is the dominant source of the modulation in the frequency ratio. The absolute frequency of the ^{171}Yb clock transition is also determined as 518 295 836 590 863.69(28)Hz, which is one of the important contributions toward a redefinition of the second in the International System of Units.