Bulletin of the American Physical Society
54th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Volume 68, Number 7
Monday–Friday, June 5–9, 2023; Spokane, Washington
Session Z05: Dark Matter and Neutrinos |
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Chair: Arne Wickenbrock, Johannes Gutenberg University Room: 205 |
Friday, June 9, 2023 10:30AM - 10:42AM |
Z05.00001: Using atomic phenomena to search for GeV scale dark matter Benjamin Roberts, Ashlee Caddell The vast majority of the effort to detect dark matter has focused on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), with masses on the order of ~10 – 1000 GeV [1]. WIMPs in that mass range may scatter off atomic nuclei leaving detectable recoil energy in experiments. However, this represents only a tiny sliver of the possible mass range for dark matter particles, which may have masses down to < ~ 10-20 eV. Current experiments are blind to the majority of this parameter space. Taking advantage of atomic (rather than nuclear) phenomena, however, may drastically increase the range of masses we may search for. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 10:42AM - 10:54AM |
Z05.00002: Hunting for Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter in the Wilderness: the Search for Non-Interacting Particles Experimental Hunt (SNIPE Hunt) Ibrahim Sulai, Ariel Arza, Itay M Bloch, Eduardo Castro Muñoz, Christopher Fabian, Michael A Fedderke, Madison Forseth, Peter Graham, Will Griffith, Erik B Helgren, Katie Hermanson, Andres Interiano-Alvarado, Derek F Jackson Kimball, Saarik Kalia, Brittany Karki, Abaz Kryemadhi, Andre Li, Ehsanullah Nikfar, Jason E Stalnaker, Yicheng Wang Recently, it was proposed that the Earth itself could act as a transducer for ultralight dark-matter detection [1,2]. In particular, interaction of kinetically mixed hidden-photon or axion-like particle (ALP) dark matter with the Earth generates a characteristic coherent magnetic field signal pattern across the surface of the Earth that can be searched for using unshielded magnetometers [2,3]. We report on the results of a coordinated measurement campaign in July 2022 to search for signals from ultralight bosonic dark matter with Compton frequencies in the 1-5 Hz range. The campaign consisted of performing simultaneous, correlated measurements with atomic magnetometers at geographically separated, relatively quiet magnetic environments (far from human-generated magnetic noise). |
Friday, June 9, 2023 10:54AM - 11:06AM |
Z05.00003: Search for exotic low-mass fields with a global magnetometer network Sami S Khamis, Ibrahim Sulai, Paul Hamilton The Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches (GNOME) is a network of geographically separated, time-synchronized, optically pumped atomic magnetometers searching for correlated transient signals that might herald exotic physics [1]. Quantum sensor networks provide an additional tool in multi-messenger astronomy to probe high-energy astrophysical events for signals by beyond-standard-model theories. We present a method to use the GNOME to search for coherent, intense bursts of exotic low-mass fields (ELFs) that could be produced alongside gravitational waves (GWs) [2] and fast radio bursts. Candidate events are first identified with a model agnostic excess power search [3] and then subjected to a generalized likelihood test. We construct Feldman-Cousins confidence belts [4] to constrain detectable ELF signal amplitudes and couplings to standard-model fermions. We report results for the GW event S200311bg [5] detected by LIGO and Virgo. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 11:06AM - 11:18AM |
Z05.00004: Search for Millicharged Dark Matter with Trapped-Ion Quantum Processor Or Katz, Itay M Bloch, Lei Feng, Harikrishnan Ramani, Peter Graham, Dmitry Budker, Marko Cetina, Christopher R Monroe Fractionally charged particles, including millicharged dark matter, are well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model. We present a search for heavy millicharged relics using the observed motion of a chain of trapped ions as a detector. Our method surpasses the alternative performance of room temperature single-ion detectors by several orders of magnitude by mapping the motion of multiple ions to individual spins using quantum information protocols to reduce systematic effects. Trapped ions offer a unique advantage with their low energy threshold, allowing detection of extremely cold millicharged particles that have thermalized with the Earth and accumulated over billions of years. This enables exploration of regions in the mass-charge parameter space that would otherwise be inaccessible. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 11:18AM - 11:30AM |
Z05.00005: An apparatus for detecting ultralight dark matter with cryogenic Fabry-Perot resonators Andra M Ionescu, Tejas Deshpande, Nicholas A Miller, Timothy Kovachy, Gerald Gabrielse, Andrew A Geraci A signature of scalar virialized ultralight fields (VULFs), a promising class of dark matter candidates, is the induction of oscillatory strains in solids as a result of temporal oscillations of the Bohr radius at their Compton frequency arising from their coupling to standard model fields. Here we report on the development of a cryogenic apparatus which exploits this effect for a broadband VULF search based on differential measurements of frequency shifts in two ultra-stable optical cavities designed to respond differently to the presence of a VULF field. The first one, with its mirrors connected by a rigid spacer, will experience length oscillations. The second one consists of two mirrors decoupled from each other and from the surroundings through a mechanical suspension which suppresses VULF-induced strains. This experiment is expected to improve current bounds on VULF couplings by an estimated two orders of magnitude in a range within the audio 0.1-10 kHz bandwidth (10-13-10-11 eV/c2). |
Friday, June 9, 2023 11:30AM - 11:42AM |
Z05.00006: Rapid adiabatic passage of cold Rydberg atoms optically shuttled through quantized RF fields for a dark matter search Georg A Raithel, Andrei P Derevianko, Vladimir S Malinovsky, David A Anderson Recent advances in laser spectroscopy and in the ability to prepare and trap Rydberg atoms have re-invigorated Rydberg-atom physics and have led to a variety of applications in electromagnetic-field (EM) sensing, quantum information and quantum simulation. These advances build, in part, on a decades-old awareness of the extraordinary sensitivity of Rydberg atoms to EM fields caused by the atoms' large electric-dipole moments for microwave transitions, which can range in thousands of Debye. Here we theoretically study the dynamics of Rydberg atoms that are shuttled with a moving optical guiding potential through a quantized single- or few-photon microwave field for a dark-matter (DM) search. The field is near-resonant with a strong electric-dipole transition of the Rydberg atoms. A rapid-adiabatic-passage approach is employed to enhance the atoms' single-photon pickup efficiency. Due to the low center-of-mass energies and potential depths involved, both the center-of-mass and the internal degrees of freedom of the atoms are treated quantum-mechanically. We will present the model, results on the single-photon detection efficiency, non-adiabatic imperfections, and possible deviations from semi-classical estimates based on the Landau-Zener formula. The results are portable to Rydberg micro-masers in high-Q superconducting cavities, a well-known cavity-QED platform in the strong coupling regime. We will discuss an application for detection of wave-like DM based on the Primakoff effect over a mass range of 15 to 400~$mu$eV. Sensitivity estimates for this DM search will be given. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 11:42AM - 11:54AM |
Z05.00007: Light dark matter detection leveraging nonlinear optics and laser interferometry Reza Ebadi, David E Kaplan, Surjeet Rajendran, Ronald L Walsworth We propose a novel experimental method for detecting light dark matter leveraging nonlinear electro-optical material in a laser interferometer. A high-precision resonant interferometry scheme can probe dark matter-induced oscillatory modifications to the electromagnetic wave's dispersion relation in the nonlinear medium. We show that this method enables exploring uncharted parameter space of axion and dark photon dark matter of masses 40 micro-eV and above, a challenging parameter space for currently existing methods. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 11:54AM - 12:06PM |
Z05.00008: Energy Efficient Readout of Windchime Sensors for Direct Detection of Dark Matter Sohitri Ghosh Recent advances in mechanical sensing technologies have led to the suggestion that heavy dark matter candidates around the Planck mass could be detected in the lab through their gravitational interaction alone. With this ultimate goal on the horizon, the Windchime collaboration is involved in developing the necessary techniques, systems, and experimental setups, using arrays of optomechanical sensors. For operations of these devices, the power requirement in the optical domain, and the measurement-added noise due to the readout, pose a critical challenge in achieving the desired sensitivity. Here we discuss the advantages of a microwave-domain readout platform which will help us in navigating these technical challenges for the next generation Windchime sensors. We also examine a simple stroboscopic measurement protocol that can be employed for the readout of these devices, which will aid in reducing the measurement-added noise to approach the desired sensitivity for gravitational direct detection of dark matter. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:06PM - 12:18PM |
Z05.00009: Searching for sterile neutrinos using radioactive levitated nanoparticles Thomas Penny, Geena Benga, Jiaxiang Wang, Emily Peng, Benjamin Siegel, Yu-Han Tseng, Molly Watts, Rachel Merrill, David C Moore The repeated measurements of neutrino oscillations over the last few decades confirm that neutrinos have non-zero masses which are not accounted for in the Standard Model. The observed small neturino masses can be explained by introducing a massive right-handed "sterile neutrino" that does not interact through the weak force. One class of experiments searching for sterile neutrinos utilise radioactive decays to generate neutrinos and search for deviations in the recoil energy spectra of the daughter nucleus that would suggest mixing between Standard Model neutrinos and a sterile neutrino. We present a new experiment that is currently being realised that utilises levitated nanoparticles doped with a radioactive isotope to measure the momentum of the recoiling daughter nucleus and reconstruct the momentum of the emitted neutrino. Measuring momentum rather than energy significantly reduces the impact of low or zero mass backgrounds and secondary emissions. This search will improve sensitivity to sterile neutrinos in the mass range 100 keV - 2 MeV compared to previous experiments. Interestingly, a sterile neutrino within this mass range could explain almost all observed dark matter. |
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:18PM - 12:30PM |
Z05.00010: Precision measurement of the mass difference between tritium and helium-3 Edmund G Myers, Moisés Medina Restrepo The KATRIN tritium beta-decay neutrino mass experiment has already reduced the limit on effective electron neutrino mass to 0.8 eV/c2 (90% C.L), with an eventual aim of 0.2 eV/c2 [1]. Using the novel method of cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy, which inherently provides absolute electron energy calibration, the Project-8 collaboration aims to reach an eventual sensitivity of 0.04 eV/c2 [2]. Comparing the value for the endpoint of the electron spectrum with a Q-value determined independently from the mass difference between tritium and helium-3 provides a test of systematics in these experiments. Here, improving on our previous measurement [3], we present results of a new precision Penning trap measurement of the mass difference between tritium and helium-3, obtained by measuring the cyclotron frequency ratios HD+/3He+, HD+/T+ and T+/3He+, each with an uncertainty of less than 10 parts-per-trillion. |
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