Development of Levitated Quantum Optomechanical Sensors for Dark Matter Detection

用于暗物质探测的悬浮量子光机械传感器的开发

• 批准号: ST/W006170/1
• 负责人: Peter Barker
• 金额: $ 51.57万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FW006170%2F1
• 关键词: Development; Levitated; Quantum; Optomechanical; Sensors

There is overwhelming evidence that 85\% of the mass of the universe is made of dark matter. Its effects can be observed on astrophysical and cosmological scales, but yet we do not know what it is. Direct detection is one of the highest priorities in science and its discovery will be of enormous scientific importance, providing perhaps the most important missing piece in our understanding of the universe and of fundamental physics. Astrophysical and cosmological bounds placed on the origin of dark matter can be explained by a very large number of potential candidates that span over 30 orders of magnitude in mass. This complicates experimental efforts to design a specific detector since we do not know which of the many possible interactions to use in its design. As there is no fixed mass or cross section to target in this search, there is now a huge international effort to expand the search and to develop new sensor technologies that can ideally cover large mass ranges with increased sensitivity. An important new direction in this international effort is the use of quantum sensors whose sensitivity is only limited by the laws of quantum mechanics. These are very different technologies to what has been previously used for dark matter searches and they promise to revolutionise discovery. In the research programme, we will utilize one of the newest quantum sensors. These consist of small masses isolated from the environment by levitating them with optical and electric fields in vacuum. These are ultra-cold quantum oscillators, which can be cooled to their ground state, making them exquisitely sensitive to small forces. This importantly includes those due to interactions with dark matter. Remarkably, their mass and thus their coupling to dark matter, can be tuned over nine orders of magnitude, while their frequency of oscillation can be tuned over at least five orders of magnitude.We will develop these sensors as dark matter detectors for at least two types of dark matter in which they appear to be very well suited. This includes extending an initial search for composite dark matter particles by expanding on the mass range by six orders of magnitude and on sensitivity by at least an order of magnitude. We also aim to use these systems to begin the first search for ultralight dark matter using arrays of these sensors and establishing the first limits based on this technology. Lastly, we expect that this work will not only have impact in dark matter physics, but also in other areas of fundamental physics where measurement of weak forces are required.

有大量证据表明，宇宙质量的85％是由暗物质制成的。它可以观察到天体物理和宇宙学量表，但我们不知道它是什么。直接检测是科学中最高的优先事项之一，其发现将具有巨大的科学重要性，这可能是我们对宇宙和基本物理学的理解中最重要的缺失作品。在暗物质的起源上，天体物理和宇宙学界限可以通过大量质量超过30个数量级的潜在候选者来解释。这使设计特定检测器的实验努力变得复杂，因为我们不知道在设计中使用的许多可能的相互作用中的哪一个。由于在此搜索中没有固定的质量或横截面可以定位的，因此现在有巨大的国际努力来扩展搜索并开发新的传感器技术，可以理想地覆盖具有提高敏感性的大型质量范围。这项国际努力的一个重要新方向是使用量子传感器，其灵敏度仅受量子力学定律的限制。这些技术与以前用于暗物质搜索的技术非常不同，并且有望彻底改变发现。在研究计划中，我们将利用最新的量子传感器之一。这些由从环境中分离出来的小块，通过真空中的光场和电场悬浮。这些是超冷的量子振荡器，可以将其冷却至其基态，使其对小力量非常敏感。重要的是包括由于与暗物质的相互作用而引起的。值得注意的是，它们的质量以及它们与暗物质的耦合可以通过九个数量级来调整，而它们的振荡频率至少可以在至少五个数量级上调整。我们将在至少两种类型的暗物质中开发这些传感器作为暗物质检测器，使它们看起来非常适合它们。这包括通过将质量范围扩展到六个数量级和灵敏度的初始搜索来扩展复合暗物质颗粒。我们还旨在使用这些系统首次使用这些传感器的阵列开始搜索超轻暗物质，并根据该技术建立第一个限制。最后，我们希望这项工作不仅会对暗物质物理学产生影响，而且还会在需要测量弱力的其他基本物理学领域。

项目成果

Sensing directional noise baths in levitated optomechanics

悬浮光力学中的定向噪声浴传感

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevresearch.6.013129
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Physical Review Research
• 影响因子: 4.2
• 作者: Gosling J