Second Data Release from the European Pulsar Timing Array: Challenging the Ultralight Dark Matter Paradigm

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Second Data Release from the European Pulsar Timing Array: Challenging the Ultralight Dark Matter Paradigm

Clemente Smarra et al. (European Pulsar Timing Array)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 171001 – Published 25 October 2023

See synopsis: Milky Way Pulsars Rule Out Some Extremely Light Dark Matter Particles

Abstract

Pulsar Timing Array experiments probe the presence of possible scalar or pseudoscalar ultralight dark matter particles through decade-long timing of an ensemble of galactic millisecond radio pulsars. With the second data release of the European Pulsar Timing Array, we focus on the most robust scenario, in which dark matter interacts only gravitationally with ordinary baryonic matter. Our results show that ultralight particles with masses $10^{- 24.0} eV ≲ m ≲ 10^{- 23.3} eV$ cannot constitute 100% of the measured local dark matter density, but can have at most local density $ρ ≲ 0.3 GeV / {cm}^{3}$ .