{
  "abstract": "Quadratically coupled ultralight scalar dark matter behaves as a coherent classical field whose interactions with matter can induce a composition-dependent force through the dark matter background. We present a complete calculation of this background-induced force beyond the spherically symmetric approximation. Using a partial-wave treatment of dark-matter scattering, we determine its angular dependence and derive an analytic description valid even when the dark-matter wavelength is much smaller than the Earth's radius. We show for the first time that Earth screening generates a characteristic frequency-band structure, splitting the signal into multiple sidebands that provide a distinctive experimental signature. We further show that the relative amplitudes of these sidebands vary annually as the satellite's Sun-synchronous orbital plane precesses in step with the Earth's revolution around the Sun, allowing us to construct a complete signal template. As an application of these results, we re-evaluate constraints from the MICROSCOPE mission, which currently provides the strongest laboratory limits on equivalence-principle violations from ultralight dark matter. We further show that proposed space-based equivalence-principle experiments, such as Galileo Galilei and STE-QUEST, can significantly enhance their sensitivity to ultralight scalar dark matter by incorporating the full frequency-band information.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2606.28481",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Thomas Bouley"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xucheng Gan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hailin Xu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tien-Tien Yu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6k9gq238whwhh.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.28481",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "6k9gq238whwhh",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.28481",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.CO"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7166701889",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.28481",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-27",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6k9gq238whwhh.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:35:50Z",
      "native_id": "2606.28481",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.28481"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.CO",
      "subfield": "cosmology"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ph",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Background-Induced Forces from Quadratically Coupled Ultralight Dark Matter",
  "title_text": "Background-Induced Forces from Quadratically Coupled Ultralight Dark Matter",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:35:50Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6k9gq238whwhh",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}