Search for ultralight dark matter in the SuperMAG high-fidelity dataset

Ultralight dark matter, such as kinetically mixed dark-photon dark matter (DPDM) or axionlike-particle dark matter (axion DM), can source an oscillating magnetic-field signal at Earth's surface.

Previous work searched for this signal in a publicly available dataset of global magnetometer measurements maintained by the SuperMAG collaboration.

This ``low-fidelity" dataset reported measurements with a 1-minute time resolution, allowing the search to set leading direct constraints on DPDM and axion DM with Compton frequencies $f_\mathrm{DM}\leq1/(1\,\mathrm{min})$ [corresponding to masses $m_\mathrm{DM}\leq7\times10^{-17}\,\mathrm{eV}$].

More recently, a dedicated experiment undertaken by the SNIPE Hunt collaboration has also searched for this same signal at higher frequencies $f_\mathrm{DM}\geq0.5\,\mathrm{Hz}$ (or $m_\mathrm{DM}\geq2\times10^{-15}\,\mathrm{eV}$).

In this work, we search for this signal of ultralight DM in the SuperMAG ``high-fidelity" dataset, which features a 1-second time resolution, allowing us to probe the gap in parameter space between the low-fidelity dataset and the SNIPE Hunt experiment.

The high-fidelity dataset exhibits lower geomagnetic noise than the low-fidelity dataset and features more data than the SNIPE Hunt experiment, making it a powerful probe of ultralight DM.

Our search finds no robust DPDM or axion DM candidates.

We set constraints on DPDM and axion DM parameter space for $10^{-3}\,\mathrm{Hz}\leq f_\mathrm{DM}\leq0.98\,\mathrm{Hz}$ (or $4\times10^{-18}\,\mathrm{eV}\leq m_\mathrm{DM}\leq4\times10^{-15}\,\mathrm{eV}$).

Our results are the leading direct constraints on both DPDM and axion DM in this mass range, and our DPDM constraint surpasses the leading astrophysical constraint in a narrow range around $m_{A'}\approx2\times10^{-15}\,\mathrm{eV}$.

;Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures.

Published version