Ultralight scalar dark matter with off-diagonal flavor couplings

Le résumé fourni par la source

Ultralight dark matter can behave as a coherent background field and induce time-dependent modifications of Standard Model parameters. We study a scenario in which a real ultralight scalar ϕ couples off-diagonally to down-type quarks, linking ultralight dark sectors to flavor physics. Working within an effective field theory, we diagonalize the quark mass matrix in a coherent ϕ background and derive analytic expressions for oscillatory shifts in down-type quark masses and Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa parameters. These effects lead to signatures in both the classical regime, where ϕ acts as a background field, and the quantum (particle) regime, where it contributes through on-shell production or off-shell mediation. Using precision flavor measurements, nuclear β decays, atomic-clock data, compiled NANOGrav-derived limits, and meson observables, we derive constraints on the flavor-violating couplings λ i j for m ϕ ∼ 10 − 24 – 10 − 12 eV , highlighting the complementarity of time-domain and flavor probes of ultralight dark sectors.

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