Searching for axion-like particles with space-based optical lattice clock networks
Abstract
Axion like particles (ALPs) are particularly well motivated candidates for dark matter, and physics beyond the Standard Model more generally. However, direct detection remains extremely challenging due to the weakness of their interactions. In this work, we propose to employ space-based optical lattice clock networks (SOLCN), originally targeted to probe the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), to detect axion dark matter through cosmic birefringence via minor modifications to their laser links. Searching for cross-correlated signals then provides significant sensitivity to low mass ALPs as a result of their large correlation lengths. In this work we focus on ALPs in the mass range 10−18.55eV−10−14eV, For ALPs mass region 10−18−10−14eV, finding that we can probe down to gaγ≥ 10−12 GeV−1. Moreover, we find that the SOLCN sensitivity to the ALP-photon coupling depends crucially on the frequency of the network link. With an $8$ GHz frequency link, we then have the potential to reach gaγ≥10−16 GeV−1 in this region.
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BibTeX
@misc{cao2026searching,
title = {{Searching for axion-like particles with space-based optical lattice clock networks}},
author = {Yu-Song Cao and Nick Houston and YanXia Liu and QingZheng Lv and She-Sheng Xue},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.39725},
eprint = {2610.39725},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39725},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Searching for axion-like particles with space-based optical lattice clock networks
AU - Yu-Song Cao
AU - Nick Houston
AU - YanXia Liu
AU - QingZheng Lv
AU - She-Sheng Xue
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.39725
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39725
AB - Axion like particles (ALPs) are particularly well motivated candidates for dark matter, and physics beyond the Standard Model more generally. However, direct detection remains extremely challenging due to the weakness of their interactions. In this work, we propose to employ space-based optical lattice clock networks (SOLCN), originally targeted to probe the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), to detect axion dark matter through cosmic birefringence via minor modifications to their laser links. Searching for cross-correlated signals then provides significant sensitivity to low mass ALPs as a result of their large correlation lengths. In this work we focus on ALPs in the mass range 10^−18.55eV−10^−14eV, For ALPs mass region 10^−18−10^−14eV, finding that we can probe down to g_aγ≥ 10^−12 GeV^−1. Moreover, we find that the SOLCN sensitivity to the ALP-photon coupling depends crucially on the frequency of the network link. With an $8$ GHz frequency link, we then have the potential to reach g_aγ≥10^−16 GeV^−1 in this region.
ER -