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Did 513 pulsars reveal hints of ghostly dark matter?

Michael Sarkis, Zi-Yan Yuwen, Yin-Zhe Ma, Tao Liu, Jing Ren, Patrick Weltevrede, Xiao Xue

May 27, 2026

Researchers analyzed polarized light from 513 pulsars using South Africa's MeerKAT telescope to hunt for ultralight dark matter. They mapped how the polarization angle shifts over time, separating expected effects (Earth's ionosphere, interstellar dust) from potential dark matter signatures using Bayesian statistics. While no smoking gun emerged, several pulsars showed rotation measure deviations worth following up.
Published as The MeerKAT Thousand-Pulsar Polarization Array I: Properties of the Polarization and Rotation Measure Time Series Data arXiv:2605.29106
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