Quantum Capacitance Detectors with meV Resolution for Astroparticle Physics

暗物质是宇宙中一种神秘的“缺失质量”，目前只能通过其大规模的引力效应观测到。确定暗物质的性质对进一步了解宇宙学、基本力和粒子至关重要。一个值得探索的新领域是“轻”暗物质，其粒子质量大约低于质子。这种新的机制需要新的和敏感的技术来探测这些候选物质在地下深处探测器中引起的潜在相互作用。量子电容探测器（QCDs）就是这样一种很有前途的技术，它是超导量子机械电路，在量子计算领域有着悠久的传统。该奖项将支持加州理工学院的一个小组研究这种新型的“量子比特”启发粒子探测器，这种探测器之前已经在其他用例中得到了证明。此外，该奖项将用于有针对性地招募本科生和高中生参与科学相关项目，以扩大代表性不足的群体的参与，并在此过程中制作开放获取的教育视频内容。暗物质界认为，meV到eV能量尺度粒子探测器的进步是该领域未来发展的关键要求。具体来说，该奖项资助了利用超导库珀对盒传感器在晶体硅中耦合相互作用诱导非热声子产生的探测器的开发。后者对吸收元件内的准粒子（破碎的铜对电子）的数量宇称很敏感。这样的方案可以对单个meV声子产生的准粒子进行字面计数，从而达到亚gev质量的暗物质状态。该合同的范围包括在两年的试验阶段设计、制造和测试多代qcd，并展示eV和随后在晶体衬底内沉积能量的较低能量分辨率的路线图。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Determining the nature of dark matter, a mysterious ‘missing mass’ in the universe only presently observable by its large-scale gravitational effects, is crucial to furthering our understanding of both cosmology and fundamental forces and particles. One new well-motivated area to probe is in the ‘light’ dark matter regime, with particle masses roughly below that of a proton. This new regime necessitates new and sensitive techniques to detect potential interactions induced by these candidates in deep underground detectors. One such promising technology is Quantum Capacitance Detectors (QCDs), which are superconducting quantum mechanical circuitry that have heritage in the quantum computing world. This award will support a group at the California Institute of Technology to investigate this novel class of ‘qubit’ inspired particle detectors, Which have previously been demonstrated for other use cases. Additionally, the award will be used to broaden the participation of under-represented groups by targeted recruitment of undergraduate and high-school students to work on scientifically relevant projects, with an eye to producing open-access educational video-content in the process. The dark matter community considers the advancement of meV to eV energy scale particle detectors a critical requirement for future progress in the field. Specifically then, this award funds the development of detectors coupling interaction induced athermal phonon generation in crystalline silicon with a superconducting Cooper-pair box sensor. The latter is sensitive to the number parity of quasiparticles (broken Cooper-pair electrons) within its absorbing element. Such a scheme enables the literal counting of quasiparticles produced by single meV phonons and thus reach to the sub-GeV mass dark matter regime. The scope of the award includes for the design, fabrication, and testing of multiple generations of QCDs over a two-year pilot phase, with a roadmap of demonstrating eV and subsequently lower energy resolution on deposited energy within the crystalline substrate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.