Research project B10 – SFB 1227 DQ-mat – Leibniz University Hannover

Introduction

The origin of Dark Matter (DM) is one of the most fundamental big open questions in particle physics and cosmology. Therefore, detecting a DM candidate, determining its particle- or wave-like nature and measuring its non-gravitational interactions is a priority in the field of fundamental physics at high and low energies. In this quest, quantum sensors have emerged as highly promising detectors thanks to their rapid progress in enhancing the sensitivity in particular to the electromagnetic interaction of new particles, opening new chances for DM discovery at the precision frontier

Objectives

There are four key objectives for this project. The first is to explore the quantum limits of detection in searches for ALPs. Here the focus will be on surpassing the standard quantum limit, and the quantum Fisher information will be exploited to evaluate a variety of proposed detection schemes. A focus here will be on detector networks.

The second objective will be on the design and exploitation of tailored entangled quantum states to enhance ALP detection.

The third and fourth objectives broaden the scope of this project beyond the axion-specific goals by optimizing the search for general scalar and vector ultralight Dark Matter candidates. While the third objective targets an improvement of the quantum mechanical modeling of atoms in long-baseline interferometers, the fourth objective aims at an optimization of ULDM searches with atomic and nuclear clocks by identifying the most sensitive frequency comparisons for each hypothesis of a DM model and DM mass.