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New technique to detect dark matter uses atomic clocks and lasers

New technique to detect dark matter uses atomic clocks and lasers
Experimental limits on a coupling strength deff of dark matter with mass mφ to normal matter. Credit: Âé¶¹ÒùÔºical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/Âé¶¹ÒùÔºRevLett.134.031001

A team of international researchers has developed an innovative approach to uncover the secrets of dark matter. In a collaboration between the University of Queensland, Australia, and Germany's metrology institute (Âé¶¹ÒùÔºikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, PTB), the team used data from atomic clocks and cavity-stabilized lasers located far apart in space and time to search for forms of dark matter that would have been invisible in previous searches.

This technique will allow the researchers to detect signals from dark matter models that interact universally with all atoms, an achievement that has eluded traditional experiments.

The team analyzed data from a European network of ultra-stable lasers connected by fiber (previously reported in ), and from the aboard GPS satellites. By comparing across vast distances, the analysis became sensitive to subtle effects of oscillating dark matter fields that would otherwise cancel out in conventional setups.

Published in Âé¶¹ÒùÔºical Review Letters, their new highlights the power of international collaboration and cutting-edge technology. By enabling scientists to investigate a broader range of dark matter scenarios, this method brings us closer to understanding one of the universe's most elusive and fundamental components.

More information: Melina Filzinger et al, Ultralight Dark Matter Search with Space-Time Separated Atomic Clocks and Cavities, Âé¶¹ÒùÔºical Review Letters (2025).

Citation: New technique to detect dark matter uses atomic clocks and lasers (2025, January 24) retrieved 20 May 2025 from /news/2025-01-technique-dark-atomic-clocks-lasers.html
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