Quantum Capacitance Detectors with meV Resolution for Astroparticle Physics

暗物质是宇宙中一种神秘的“失踪物质”，目前只能通过其大尺度引力效应观察到，确定暗物质的性质对于促进我们对宇宙学和基本力和粒子的理解至关重要。一个新的积极探索领域是“轻”暗物质领域，其粒子质量大致低于质子。 这种新的制度需要新的和敏感的技术来检测潜在的相互作用引起的这些候选人在深地下探测器。其中一项有前途的技术是量子电容探测器（QCD），这是一种超导量子力学电路，在量子计算领域有着悠久的历史。该奖项将支持加州理工学院的一个小组研究这种新颖的“量子比特”粒子探测器，这些探测器以前曾被证明用于其他用例。此外，该奖项将用于扩大代表性不足的群体的参与，有针对性地招募本科生和高中生从事与科学相关的项目，以期在此过程中制作开放式教育视频内容。暗物质社区认为meV到eV能量尺度粒子探测器的进步是该领域未来进展的关键要求。具体来说，该奖项资助的发展探测器耦合相互作用诱导的非热声子产生晶体硅与超导库珀对盒传感器。后者是敏感的准粒子（破碎的库珀对电子）在其吸收元素的数量奇偶校验。这样的计划，使文字计数的准粒子所产生的单兆电子伏的声子，从而达到亚GeV质量的暗物质制度。该奖项的范围包括在为期两年的试点阶段设计、制造和测试多代QCD，并展示了在晶体衬底内沉积能量的eV和随后的较低能量分辨率的路线图。该奖项反映了NSF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.