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  • Open Access

Listening for ultraheavy dark matter with underwater acoustic detectors

Damon Cleaver1,*, Christopher McCabe1, and Ciaran A. J. O’Hare2

  • *Contact author: damon.cleaver@kcl.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 063060 – Published 29 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jpzr-msx1

Abstract

Ultraheavy dark matter candidates evade traditional direct detection experiments due to their low particle flux. We explore the potential of large underwater acoustic arrays, originally developed for ultrahigh energy neutrino detection, to detect ultraheavy dark matter interactions. These particles deposit energy via nuclear scattering while traversing seawater, generating thermoacoustic waves detectable by hydrophones. We present the first robust first-principles calculation of dark matter-induced acoustic waves, establishing a theoretical framework for signal modeling and sensitivity estimates. Our framework incorporates frequency-dependent attenuation effects, including viscous and chemical relaxation, not considered in previous calculations. A sensitivity analysis for a hypothetical 100  km3 hydrophone array in the Mediterranean Sea demonstrates that such an array could extend sensitivity to the previously unexplored mass range of 0.1−10  μg (∼1020–1023  GeV), with sensitivity to both spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions. Our results establish acoustic detection as a complementary dark matter search method, enabling searches in existing hydrophone data and informing future detector designs.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 063060– Published 29 September, 2025
  • Received 4 March 2025
  • Accepted 12 August 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. Funded by SCOAP3.

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