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A Time-Varying Fine Structure Constant from Naturally Ultralight Dark Matter

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arxiv 2012.02787 v3 pith:2J3NPNPZ submitted 2020-12-04 hep-ph

classification hep-ph
keywords constantdarkfinematterstructurefieldobservedscalar
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abstract

We present a class of models in which the coupling of the photon to an ultralight scalar field that has a time-dependent vacuum expectation value causes the fine structure constant to oscillate in time. The scalar field is assumed to constitute all or part of the observed dark matter. Its mass is protected against radiative corrections by a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_N$ exchange symmetry that relates the Standard Model to several copies to itself. The abundance of dark matter is set by the misalignment mechanism. We show that the oscillations in the fine structure constant are large enough to be observed in current and near-future experiments.

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Forward citations

Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

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    hep-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A Z_N-symmetric WIMP sector stores the initial axion value in its relic distribution and later generates a finite-density axion potential, producing an apparent late-time phantom crossing without ghosts.

  2. Ultralight Dark Matter from the Edge of Field Space

    hep-ph 2025-11 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A scalar with hard field-space boundaries — a 'wallion' — is a viable ultralight dark-matter candidate whose exponentially small, radiatively stable mass and saturated relic density at large misalignment also suppress...

  3. Thermal History of Non-equilibrated Scalars

    hep-ph 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A non-equilibrated scalar controlling a quartic coupling makes the coupling smaller at high temperature, strengthening the first-order dark Higgs phase transition.

  4. Searching for coupled, hyperlight scalars across cosmic history

    hep-ph 2025-02 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Hyperlight quadratically coupled scalars making up a few percent of dark matter are bounded to near- or sub-gravitational couplings to electrons and photons over 10^-31 to 10^-28 eV, with quasar spectra setting the st...

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