Manley Jack, Chowdhury Mitul Dey, Grin Daniel, Singh Swati, Wilson Dalziel J
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Feb 12;126(6):061301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.061301.
We consider using optomechanical accelerometers as resonant detectors for ultralight dark matter. As a concrete example, we describe a detector based on a silicon nitride membrane fixed to a beryllium mirror, forming an optical cavity. The use of different materials gives access to forces proportional to baryon (B) and lepton (L) charge, which are believed to be coupling channels for vector dark matter particles ("dark photons"). The cavity meanwhile provides access to quantum-limited displacement measurements. For a centimeter-scale membrane precooled to 10 mK, we argue that sensitivity to vector B-L dark matter can exceed that of the Eöt-Wash experiment in integration times of minutes, over a fractional bandwidth of ∼0.1% near 10 kHz (corresponding to a particle mass of 10^{-10} eV/c^{2}). Our analysis can be translated to alternative systems, such as levitated particles, and suggests the possibility of a new generation of tabletop experiments.
我们考虑使用光机械加速度计作为超轻暗物质的共振探测器。作为一个具体例子，我们描述一种基于固定在铍镜上的氮化硅膜的探测器，该膜形成一个光学腔。使用不同材料能够获取与重子（B）和轻子（L）电荷成比例的力，据信这些力是矢量暗物质粒子（“暗光子”）的耦合通道。同时，该腔可用于进行量子极限位移测量。对于预冷至10 mK的厘米级膜，我们认为在几分钟的积分时间内，对矢量B - L暗物质的灵敏度可以超过厄缶 - 瓦什实验，在10 kHz附近约0.1%的分数带宽内（对应粒子质量为10⁻¹⁰ eV/c²）。我们的分析可以推广到其他系统，如悬浮粒子，并暗示了新一代桌面实验的可能性。
