https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09604-9
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Probing dark matter clumps, strings and domain walls with gravitational wave detectors
1
Institut für theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany
2
Department of Physics, Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Durham University, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK
b
sebastian.schenk@durham.ac.uk
Received:
22
March
2021
Accepted:
28
August
2021
Published online:
17
September
2021
Gravitational wave astronomy has recently emerged as a new way to study our Universe. In this work, we survey the potential of gravitational wave interferometers to detect macroscopic astrophysical objects comprising the dark matter. Starting from the well-known case of clumps we expand to cosmic strings and domain walls. We also consider the sensitivity to measure the dark matter power spectrum on small scales. Our analysis is based on the fact that these objects, when traversing the vicinity of the detector, will exert a gravitational pull on each node of the interferometer, in turn leading to a differential acceleration and corresponding Doppler signal, that can be measured. As a prototypical example of a gravitational wave interferometer, we consider signals induced at LISA. We further extrapolate our results to gravitational wave experiments sensitive in other frequency bands, including ground-based interferometers, such as LIGO, and pulsar timing arrays, e.g. ones based on the Square Kilometer Array. Assuming moderate sensitivity improvements beyond the current designs, clumps, strings and domain walls may be within reach of these experiments.
© The Author(s) 2021
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Funded by SCOAP3
