Speaker
Description
The development of high-precision quantum sensors is an exciting prospect for all branches of science and metrology. Chief among these are their applications in astroparticle phenomenology from detection of gravitational waves to illuminating the nature of dark matter. Studies naturally concentrate on the simplest models of new physics phenomena - scalar fields with linear couplings in the Standard Halo Model. However, it is essential to consider the broadest landscape of parameter space in reach.
Atom interferometers, atomic clocks, and other quantum sensors can constrain models of Lorentz invariant and Lorentz violating spin-2 dark matter, motivated by theories of massive gravity. We show that coherent oscillations of the spin-2 ultra-light field induces measurable phase shifts in atoms through three coupling mechanisms; scalar interactions that modify atomic energy levels, and vector and tensor effects that alter the propagation of both atoms and light. We demonstrate that these multifaceted interactions enable experiments to probe a range of ULDM properties and mass scales that are inaccessible to laser interferometric gravitational wave detector.
In addition to terrestrial experiments, I also discuss future modalities for space-based quantum sensor missions. Assaying the distribution of dark matter in the solar system is determined by the gravitational focusing of the Sun and planets and the effects of self-interactions, that can yield bound populations of dark matter at sub-Solar-system scales. Notably, the wave dark-matter candidates in the axiverse of string theory support a great variety of particle masses, and the possibility of structured, time varying over-densities from overlapping planetary halos in the Solar system offers a striking way of identifying multiple-dark-matter-particle scenarios.
Work based on arXiv:2412.14282 and a future publication. In collaboration with Diego Blas, Christopher McCabe, and Susan Gardner.
| Main Contribution topic | Theory / Phenomenology |
|---|---|
| Secondary contribution topic | Direct detection |