Abstract
The Sun is not quite a perfect sphere, and its oblateness, thought to be induced through its rotation, has been measured using optical observations of its radius. Its gravitational quadrupole moment can then be deduced using solar models, or through helioseismology, and it can also be determined from measurements of its gravitational effects on Mercury's orbit. The various assessments do not appear to agree, with the most complete and precise orbital assessments being in slight excess of other determinations. This may speak to the existence of a nonluminous disk or ring, where we also note evidence for a circumsolar dust ring within Mercury's orbit from the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) mission. Historically, too, a protoplanetary disk may have been key to reconciling the Sun's metallicity with its neutrino yield. The distribution of the nonluminous mass within Mercury's orbit can modify the relative size of the optical and orbital quadrupole moments in different ways. We develop how we can use these findings to limit the mass of a dark disk, ring, or halo in the immediate vicinity of the Sun, and we note how future observational studies of the inner Solar System can not only refine these constraints but can also help to identify and to assess the mass of its dark-matter component.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 083057 |
| Journal | Physical Review D |
| Volume | 111 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 15 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"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.
Funding
We thank Lance Dixon, Antonio Genova, Roni Harnik, Dan Hooper, Russell Howard, Mrunal Korwar, and Guillermo Stenborg for helpful correspondence and comments, and we are grateful to the anonymous referee for bringing the work of [95] to our attention. S.G. would like to thank the Theoretical Division at Fermilab for lively hospitality and to acknowledge the Universities Research Association for support during a sabbatical visit in which this project was initiated. G.F.S.A. would like to thank the hospitality of the Fermilab Theory Group. G.F.S.A., P.M., and M.Z. are grateful to the Center for Theoretical Underground Physics and Related Areas (CETUP*), The Institute for Underground Science at Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), and the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority for their hospitality and financial support. That stimulating environment was invaluable to us. S.G. and M.Z. also acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under Contract No. DE-FG02-96ER40989. P.M. is supported by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics. G.F.S.A. is fully financially supported by Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) under Contracts No. 2022/10894-8 and No. 2020/08096-0. We thank Lance Dixon, Antonio Genova, Roni Harnik, Dan Hooper, Russell Howard, Mrunal Korwar, and Guillermo Stenborg for helpful correspondence and comments, and we are grateful to the anonymous referee for bringing the work of to our attention. S. G. would like to thank the Theoretical Division at Fermilab for lively hospitality and to acknowledge the Universities Research Association for support during a sabbatical visit in which this project was initiated. G. F. S. A. would like to thank the hospitality of the Fermilab Theory Group. G. F. S. A., P. M., and M. Z. are grateful to the Center for Theoretical Underground Physics and Related Areas (CETUP*), The Institute for Underground Science at Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), and the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority for their hospitality and financial support. That stimulating environment was invaluable to us. S. G. and M. Z. also acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under Contract No. DE-FG02-96ER40989. P. M. is supported by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics. G. F. S. A. is fully financially supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) under Contracts No. 2022/10894-8 and No. 2020/08096-0.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Institute for High Energy Physics | |
| Universities Space Research Association | |
| South Dakota Science and Technology Authority | |
| Lance Dixon | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Science Programs | |
| Institute for Nuclear Physics | DE-FG02-96ER40989 |
| Fermi Research Alliance, LLC | DE-AC02-07CH11359 |
| Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo | 2022/10894-8, 2020/08096-0 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
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