CAREER: Searching for New Physics from a Dark Sector Using Optically Levitated Microspheres

职业：利用光悬浮微球从暗区寻找新物理学

• 批准号: 1653232
• 负责人: David Moore
• 金额: $ 57.58万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-02-01 至 2023-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1653232&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Searching; New; Physics; Dark

Astrophysical observations indicate that the majority of the matter in the universe consists of dark matter. Identifying the nature of dark matter is a central goal of fundamental physics in the coming years. This award provides support to develop a novel set of techniques to search for dark matter by observing the possible presence of new forces under which dark matter interacts. If present, these new forces could lead to small, but observable, deviations in the electromagnetic interactions of normal matter. The techniques planned here will enable novel searches for dark matter that are largely complementary to existing searches. These searches will provide more than an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity to a well-motivated class of dark matter models, relative to the best existing laboratory constraints. Since no single search can probe all viable dark matter models, a wide variety of complementary techniques will likely be needed to identify the nature of dark matter or fully constrain its properties.This award will provide educational opportunities related to the scientific and technical aspects of this research to the New Haven and Yale University communities. In particular, the Pathways to Science program serves the local school districts in New Haven and reflects the diversity of the public schools in this area. Through the activities supported by this award, middle and high school students from groups that are underrepresented in physics and STEM-based fields will have the opportunity to learn about the physics and techniques underlying this research. A new class of force sensors based on optically levitated dielectric microspheres in high vacuum will be used to search for the effects of such new forces. These techniques can allow the detection of Newtonian forces smaller than 10^-18 N acting on nanogram-sized objects. An experimental apparatus optimized for searches for deviations from Coulomb's law at sub-mm distances will be developed in the course of this work, which will enable a search for new interactions mediated by dark photons with masses between 0.1 meV and 1 eV. In addition, the same force sensors can be used to search for "milli-charged particles," which have tiny fractional electric charges (q 1 e). In certain dark matter models, such particles could have been produced in the early universe and formed stable bound states with atoms that can be searched for in terrestrial matter today.

天体物理学观测表明，宇宙中的大部分物质由暗物质组成。识别暗物质的本质是未来几年基础物理学的中心目标。该奖项支持开发一套新颖的技术，通过观察暗物质相互作用下可能存在的新力量来寻找暗物质。如果存在，这些新的力可能会导致正常物质的电磁相互作用产生微小但可观察到的偏差。这里计划的技术将使对暗物质的新颖搜索成为可能，这在很大程度上是对现有搜索的补充。相对于现有的最佳实验室限制，这些搜索将使对一类暗物质模型的敏感性提高一个数量级以上。由于没有单一的搜索可以探测所有可行的暗物质模型，因此可能需要多种补充技术来识别暗物质的性质或完全限制其特性。该奖项将为纽黑文和耶鲁大学社区提供与这项研究的科学和技术方面相关的教育机会。特别是，“科学之路”项目为纽黑文当地学区提供服务，反映了该地区公立学校的多样性。通过该奖项支持的活动，物理学和 STEM 领域代表性不足的群体的中学生和高中生将有机会了解这项研究背后的物理学和技术。基于高真空中光学悬浮介电微球的新型力传感器将用于寻找这种新力的影响。这些技术可以检测作用在纳克大小物体上的小于 10^-18 N 的牛顿力。在这项工作的过程中，我们将开发一种针对亚毫米距离库仑定律偏差搜索进行优化的实验装置，这将能够搜索由质量在 0.1 meV 至 1 eV 之间的暗光子介导的新相互作用。此外，相同的力传感器还可用于搜索具有微小分数电荷 (q 1 e) 的“毫带电粒子”。在某些暗物质模型中，此类粒子可能在早期宇宙中产生，并与原子形成稳定的束缚态，这些原子可以在今天的地球物质中寻找。

项目成果

Force and acceleration sensing with optically levitated nanogram masses at microkelvin temperatures

• DOI: 10.1103/physreva.101.053835
• 发表时间: 2020-05-15
• 期刊: PHYSICAL REVIEW A
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Monteiro, Fernando;Li, Wenqiang;Moore, David C.
• 通讯作者: Moore, David C.

Searching for new physics using optically levitated sensors

• DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/abcf8a
• 发表时间: 2021-01-01
• 期刊: QUANTUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
• 影响因子: 6.7
• 作者: Moore, David C.;Geraci, Andrew A.
• 通讯作者: Geraci, Andrew A.

Optical rotation of levitated spheres in high vacuum

• DOI: 10.1103/physreva.97.051802
• 发表时间: 2018-05-31
• 期刊: PHYSICAL REVIEW A
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Monteiro, Fernando;Ghosh, Sumita;Moore, David C.
• 通讯作者: Moore, David C.

Control and measurement of electric dipole moments in levitated optomechanics

• DOI: 10.1103/physreva.104.053512
• 发表时间: 2021-11-10
• 期刊: PHYSICAL REVIEW A
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Afek, Gadi;Monteiro, Fernando;Moore, David C.
• 通讯作者: Moore, David C.

Coherent Scattering of Low Mass Dark Matter from Optically Trapped Sensors

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.128.101301
• 发表时间: 2022-03-09
• 期刊: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
• 影响因子: 8.6
• 作者: Afek, Gadi;Carney, Daniel;Moore, David C.
• 通讯作者: Moore, David C.