Search for transient variations of the fine structure constant and dark matter using fiber-linked optical atomic clocks

Understand

We search for transient variations of the fine structure constant using data from a European network of fiber-linked optical atomic clocks.

• By searching for coherent variations in the recorded clock frequency comparisons across the network, we significantly improve the constraints on transient variations of the fine structure constant.
• For example, we constrain the variation in alpha to <5*10^-17 for transients of duration 10^3 s.
• This analysis also presents a possibility to search for dark matter, the mysterious substance hypothesised to explain galaxy dynamics and other astrophysical phenomena that is thought to dominate the matter density of the universe.