Researchers detect mysterious signals possibly linked to dark matter around Earth
Researchers have detected unexplained signals in Earth's magnetic field that may indicate the presence of dark photons, a potential dark matter candidate. This study not only provides the most string…
Scientists have turned Earth’s magnetic field into a planet‑sized detector, using data from satellite magnetometers to search for the lightest proposed dark‑matter particles. The study, published this week, found several unexplained signals that could be evidence of dark photons, a hypothetical cousin of the photon that might carry the force of dark matter. The team also set the most stringent limits yet on ultralight axions, particles that could solve the strong‑CP problem in quantum chromodynamics and account for dark matter.
Axions and dark photons are among the most popular candidates for dark matter because they are very light and interact only weakly with ordinary matter. Traditional detectors look for rare collisions in underground laboratories, but the new method exploits the fact that dark‑matter particles can convert into real photons in the presence of a magnetic field. By monitoring tiny fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field with high‑precision magnetometers aboard the Swarm satellite constellation and several ground stations, the researchers could look for the faint signatures of this conversion. Their analysis pushed the upper limit on the axion‑photon coupling down by a factor of five compared with previous experiments, and the anomalous peaks appear at frequencies corresponding to dark‑photon masses of roughly 10‑18 eV.
The signals are not yet definitive proof of dark photons. The team plans to repeat the measurements with upgraded sensors and to cross‑check the results against independent datasets from other satellite missions such as the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) and the European Space Agency’s GOCE mission. If the peaks hold up, they could motivate a new generation of dedicated dark‑matter experiments that use the Earth’s magnetosphere as a large‑volume laboratory. Either way, the study demonstrates a novel way to probe the dark sector and pushes the frontier of dark‑matter searches into the ultralight regime.
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