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  • Open Access

Detecting dark objects in the Solar System with gravitational wave observatories

Valentin Thoss*

Abraham Loeb

  • Astronomy Department, Harvard University, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

  • *Contact author: vthoss@mpe.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 083050 – Published 23 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/g3wh-hg4x

Abstract

Dark objects streaming into the solar system can be probed using gravitational wave (GW) experiments through the perturbations that they would induce on the detector test masses. In this work, we study the detectability of the resulting gravitational signal for a number of current and future GW observatories. Dark matter in the form of clumps or primordial black holes with masses in the range 107–1011  g can be detected with the proposed DECIGO experiment.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 083050– Published 23 October, 2025
  • Received 25 July 2025
  • Revised 28 September 2025
  • Accepted 30 September 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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