Abstract
The cosmological applications of atomic clocks so far have been limited to searches for the uniform-in-time drift of fundamental constants. We point out that a transient-in-time change of fundamental constants can be induced by dark-matter objects that have large spatial extent, such as stable topological defects built from light non-Standard Model fields. Networks of correlated atomic clocks, some of them already in existence, such as the Global Positioning System, can be used as a powerful tool to search for topological defect dark matter, thus providing another important fundamental physics application for the ever-improving accuracy of atomic clocks. During the encounter with an extended dark-matter object, as it sweeps through the network, initially synchronized clocks will become desynchronized. Time discrepancies between spatially separated clocks are expected to exhibit a distinct signature, encoding the defect' s space structure and its interaction strength with atoms.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 933-936 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Nature Physics |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 11 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.