Constraints on conformal ultralight dark matter couplings from the European Pulsar Timing Array
Millisecond pulsars are extremely precise celestial clocks: as they rotate, the beamed radio waves emitted along the axis of their magnetic field can be detected with radio telescopes, which allows for tracking subtle changes in the pulsars' rotation periods. A possible effect on the period of a pulsar is given by a potential coupling to dark matter, in cases where it is modeled with an ``ultralight'' scalar field. In this paper, we consider a universal conformal coupling of the dark matter scalar to gravity, which in turn mediates an effective coupling between pulsars and dark matter. If the dark matter scalar field is changing in time, as expected in the Milky Way, this effective coupling produces a periodic modulation of the pulsar rotational frequency. By studying the time series of observed radio pulses collected by the European Pulsar Timing Array experiment, we present constraints on the coupling of dark matter, improving on existing bounds. These bounds can also be regarded as constraints on the parameters of scalar-tensor theories of the Fierz-Jordan-Brans-Dicke and Damour-Esposito-Far\`ese types in the presence of a (light) mass potential term.
Authors
- M. Krämer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7615-7499)
- Ismaël Cognard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1775-9692)
- D. J. Champion (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1361-7723)
- S. A. Sanidas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5956-5546)
- Clemente Smarra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0817-2830)
- Diego Blas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2646-0112)
- Lijing Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1334-8853)
- B. Goncharov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3189-5807)
- Enrico Barausse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6499-6263)
- Adrien Kuntz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4803-2998)
- Kuo Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2953-7376)
- M. J. Keith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5567-5492)
- John Antoniadis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4453-3776)
- H. Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3407-8071)
- G. Theureau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-276X)
- D. Perrodin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1806-2483)
- Diana López Nacir (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4398-1147)
- Lucas Guillemot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9049-8716)
Institutions
- Leibniz University Hannover (DE)
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Université d'Orléans (FR)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (IT)
- University of Trieste (IT)
- Institute for High Energy Physics (ES)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR)
- Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR)
- Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (CN)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (IT)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Artifex University (RO)
- Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (CN)
- Laboratoire Univers et Théories (FR)
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences (CN)
- FORTH Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (GR)
- Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (DE)
- Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (ES)
- Gran Sasso Science Institute (IT)
- Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste (IT)
- Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- National Astronomical Observatories (CN)
- Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace (FR)
- Institute of Science and Technology
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2024-08-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.110.043033
- Citations
- 11
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.65
Funders
- Centres de Recerca de Catalunya
- European Commission
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Generalitat de Catalunya
- Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
- Universidad de Buenos Aires
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Institut national des sciences de l'Univers
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules
- Institut de physique
- H2020 European Research Council
- HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions