The Windchime Project Gravitational Detection of Dark Matter in the Laboratory
The existence of Dark Matter is firmly established through a variety of observations in cosmology and astrophysics, spanning from the Big Bang to today, and from the Universe as a whole to individual galaxies. Its nature however is one of the grandest mysteries in physics. The so-called direct detection of Dark Matter in the laboratory is one of the most promising avenues to address this challenge. However, established methods require some additional channel for Dark Matter to interact with us, which is an assumption not backed by astrophysical evidence.
We have demonstrated in 2020 that recent technological advances allow us to tackle the direct detection of Dark Matter in the laboratory through its gravitational interaction alone. This is feasible around the Planck mass (22 μg or 1019GeV), which is in itself a highly interesting mass range to probe. At the same time, Dark Matter particle fluxes around this mass are still accessible in the laboratory. With the Windchime Project, we work on an array of mechanical sensors with quantum-enhanced readout in order to search for planck-mass Dark Matter through its gravitational interaction alone.
Thrusts Pushing the Limits
Accelerometers
We develop low-noise accelerometers optimized for the fast and faint signals expected from Dark Matter. These Micro-Electromechanical devices are among the most sensitive accelerometers ever built.
Quantum Optics
We work on advanced quantum technologies such as squeezed light and quantum back-action evasion to read out our accelerometers well beyond the noise floor given by the Standard Quantum Limit.
Readout
Windchime requires fast and massively parallel readout of a large number of accelerometers. We develop dedicated electronics and readout logic to sustain the high channel count and rates.
Analysis
Finding track of Planck-mass particles traversing our array is a substantial challenge, as the feeble signals are buried deep in the noise of individual sensors. We develop new tracking algorithms and analysis methods to meet this challenge.
Phenomenology
We are investigating the theory underlying our advanced quantum sensing techniques, as well as the implications of the Windchime project for Planck-mass and ultralight Dark Matter.
