Speaker: Yikun Wang, JHU
Title: Dark matter direct detection with matter-wave interferometers
Abstract: Matter-wave interferometers are multiple purpose experiments to test fundamental physics. In this talk, I will present some new prospects of utilizing matter-wave interferometers to direct detect dark matter. First, I will discuss the potential for detecting sub-GeV dark matter, where dark matter scattering induces decoherence and phase shifts of the interfering matter waves. Notably, these channels have zero energy deposition threshold, making them highly competitive and complementary to existing direct detection methods in this mass range. In the meantime, long-baseline atom interferometers are among the most sensitive gravitational detectors. In the second part of the talk, I will focus on purely gravitational signatures of dark matter in proposed long-baseline atom interferometers. Before addressing the dark matter case, I will introduce a gauge-invariant formalism for calculating atom interferometer phase shifts within linearized gravity. This framework identifies three distinct physical effects induced by an arbitrary metric perturbation: gravitational redshift, Shapiro time delay, and the Doppler effect. Applying this formalism, I will discuss the detection prospects for macroscopic dark matter and ultralight dark matter. Intriguingly, proposed space-based experiments could be sensitive to dark matter clumps with masses between 10^5 kg and 10^10 kg purely through gravitational interactions.
Zoom link: https://umd.zoom.us/j/95913933745?pwd=qCekrni5KRyBoypxAEJS9xE1drb05A.1
ID: 959 1393 3745
Passcode: UMDEPT