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Abstract:

Gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter are among the most compelling frontiers in fundamental physics, motivating proposals for very-long-baseline atom interferometerssuch as AION1, MAGIS2, AICE3 and AEDGE4 that aim to detect at frequencies at which ground-based5 and space-borne6 laser interferometers lose sensitivity. Very-long-baseline atom interferometers look for signals by comparing the quantum phase evolution of widely separated atomic ensembles interrogated by a common laser. However, their performance depends critically on suppressing noise sources, particularly laser phase noise. The experimental validation of such noise rejection remains an important challenge. Here we demonstrate a prototype differential atom interferometer based on the single-photon clock transition of fermionic 87Sr. Thus, we obtain a gradiometer configuration with a species intrinsically suited to kilometre-scale and space-baseline operation. The instrument operates at the standard quantum limit7 with no excess noise beyond atom shot noise. The differential configuration maintains quantum-limited sensitivity in the presence of several radians of artificially injected laser phase noise per shot, which emulates the conditions expected in a very-long-baseline atom interferometer. We also demonstrate the recovery of coherent oscillatory signals across a broad frequency range under fully phase-randomized conditions, a capability that is inaccessible to a single interferometer operating in the same regime. These results provide an experimental validation of the noise-immune measurement principle underlying very-long-baseline atom interferometers and mark an important step towards next-generation quantum sensors for gravitational-wave detection and searches for ultralight dark matter8, 9.

Abstract:

We study the production of heavy, μ≳1 TeV, bosonic spin s=0, 1 dark matter (DM) via the simultaneous processes of Hawking evaporation and superradiance (SR) from an initial population of small, ≲106 kg, primordial black holes (PBHs). Even for small initial PBH spins, the SR process can produce extremely dense gravitationally bound DM Bose or Proca soliton “stars” of radius ≲pm and mass ∼10few kg that can survive to today, well after PBH decay. These solitons can constitute a significant fraction of the DM density, rising to ≳50% in the vector DM case.

Abstract:

We report the characterisation of a FBK NUV-HD-cryo silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensor operated in a 9.4 ± 0.2 mK environment inside a dilution refrigerator, towards the development of a cryogenic cosmic-ray muon veto system to be operated internal to a dilution refrigerator required for low background experiments such as the QUEST-DMC dark matter search experiment. We characterise the single photon response and the gain (the charge produced per detected photon), the dark count noise rate, and correlated noise contributions as a function of operating voltage. This paper also reports first proof-of-concept measurements of using a SiPM coupled to scintillator internal to a dilution refrigerator, towards detecting high-energy events consistent with candidate cosmic-ray muon signals.