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DOE OSTI2024

Constraints on fifth forces and ultralight dark matter from OSIRIS-REx target asteroid Bennu

It is important to test the possible existence of fifth forces, as ultralight bosons that would mediate these are predicted to exist in several well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. Recent work indicated asteroids as promising probes, but applications to real data are lacking so far. Here we use the OSIRIS-REx mission and ground-based tracking data for the asteroid Bennu to derive constraints on fifth forces. Our limits are strongest for mediator masses m ~ (10 -18 -10 -17 ) eV, where we currently achieve the tightest bounds. These can be translated to a wide class of models leading to Yukawa-type fifth forces, and we demonstrate how they apply to U(1) B dark photons and baryon-coupled scalars. Our results demonstrate the potential of asteroid tracking in probing well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model and ultralight bosons near the fuzzy dark matter range.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Year six photometric measurements of known Trans-Neptunian Objects and Centaurs by the Dark Energy Survey

ABSTRACT We identified known Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and Centaurs in the complete Dark Energy Survey (DES) year six catalogue (DES Y6) through the Sky Body Tracker (SkyBoT) tool. We classified our data set of 144 objects into a widely used 4-class taxonomic system of TNOs. No such previous classification was available in the literature for most of these objects. From absolute magnitudes and average albedos, an estimation of the diameters of all these objects is obtained. Correlations involving colours, orbital parameters, dynamical classes, and sizes are also discussed. In particular, our largest reddest object has a diameter of $390^{+68}_{-53}$ km and our largest cold classical, $255^{+19}_{-17}$ km. Also, a weak correlation between colour and inclination is found within the population of resonant TNOs in addition to weak correlations between colour and phase slope in different bands.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Photometry of Outer Solar System Objects from the Dark Energy Survey. II. A Joint Analysis of Trans-Neptunian Absolute Magnitudes, Colors, Light Curves and Dynamics

For the 696 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with absolute magnitudes 5.5 < H r < 8.2 detected in the Dark Energy Survey, we characterize the relationships between their dynamical state and physical properties—namely H r , indicating size; colors, indicating surface composition; and flux variation semiamplitude A, indicating asphericity and surface inhomogeneity. We seek “birth” physical distributions that can recreate these parameters in every dynamical class. We show that the observed colors of these TNOs are consistent with two Gaussian distributions in griz space, “near-infrared bright” (NIRB) and “near-infrared faint” (NIRF), presumably an inner and outer birth population, respectively. We find a model in which both the NIRB and NIRF H r and A distributions are independent of current dynamical states, supporting their assignment as birth populations. All objects are consistent with a common rolling p(H r ), but NIRF objects are significantly more variable. Cold classicals (CCs) are purely NIRF, while hot classical (HC), scattered, and detached TNOs are consistent with ≈ 70% NIRB and the resonance NIRB fractions show significant variation. The NIRB components of the HCs and of some resonances have broader inclination distributions than the NIRFs, i.e. their current dynamics retains information about birth location. We find evidence for radial stratification within the birth NIRB population, in that HC NIRBs are on average redder than detached or scattered NIRBs; a similar effect distinguishes CCs from other NIRFs. We estimate total object counts and masses of each class within our H r range. These results will strongly constrain models of the outer solar system.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Photometry of Outer Solar System Objects from the Dark Energy Survey. I. Photometric Methods, Light-curve Distributions, and Trans-Neptunian Binaries

We report the methods of and initial scientific inferences from the extraction of precision photometric information for the >800 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) discovered in the images of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Scene-modeling photometry is used to obtain shot-noise-limited flux measures for each exposure of each TNO, with background sources subtracted. Comparison of double-source fits to the pixel data with single-source fits are used to identify and characterize two binary TNO systems. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo method samples the joint likelihood of the intrinsic colors of each source as well as the amplitude of its flux variation, given the time series of multiband flux measurements and their uncertainties. A catalog of these colors and light-curve amplitudes A is included with this publication. We show how to assign a likelihood to the distribution q(A) of light-curve amplitudes in any subpopulation. Using this method, we find decisive evidence (i.e., evidence ratio <0.01) that cold classical (CC) TNOs with absolute magnitude 6 < H$_{r}$ < 8.2 are more variable than the hot classical (HC) population of the same H$_{r}$, reinforcing theories that the former form in situ and the latter arise from a different physical population. Resonant and scattering TNOs in this H$_{r}$ range have variability consistent with either the HCs or CCs. DES TNOs with H$_{r}$ < 6 are seen to be decisively less variable than higher-H$_{r}$ members of any dynamical group, as expected. More surprising is that detached TNOs are decisively less variable than scattering TNOs, which requires them to have distinct source regions or some subsequent differential processing.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗