Study sets new limits on dark photons using new dielectric optical haloscope
The dark matter field of dark photons transforms into photons in a layered dielectric target. These photons are focused by the lens onto a small, low-noise SNSPD detector. The light emitted from the stack is approximately uniform except for a small region in the center where the mirror is absent. Credit: Chiles et al.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Perimeter Institute recently set new limits on dark photons, which are hypothetical particles and well-known candidates for dark matter. Their findings, presented in a paper published in Physical Review LetterThis was achieved using the new superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) they developed.
“There is close collaboration between our research groups at NIST and MIT, run by Dr. Sae Woo Nam and Prof. Karl Berggren, respectively,” Jeff Chiles, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. “We are working together to advance the technology and applications for ultra-sensitive devices called superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors or SNSPDs.”
Over the past few years, Chiles and his colleagues have been considering potential applications that would benefit from the SNSPD detector they have worked on, which has virtually no background noise among other beneficial characteristics. They were eventually introduced to a group of theoretical physicists from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada.
This team of theorists had an interesting idea for a dark matter detector that could operate in a completely different domain than the one currently used in the search for dark matter. This detector, a multilayer dielectric optical haloscope, is a very promising concept, but requires an optical detector that can perform much better than those on the market today.
“This turned out to be a perfect match, as the MIT and NIST groups were able to build the detector and equipment and test it,” explains Chiles. “So, we teamed up and named our project LAMPOST (Light A’ Multilayer Periodic Optical SNSPD Target). Our goal was to achieve the first experimental proof of concept for this idea and prove that it can be used to search for dark matter with better sensitivity than established limits.”
The optical detector designed by Chiles and his colleagues is based on a structure known as a dielectric stack or target. This structure can produce the desired signal photons, by converting nonrelativistic dark photons into relativistic photons of the same frequency.
New constraints on dark photon DM with mass and kinetic mixing. The magenta shaded region represents the 90% limit set by our experiment. The thin purple curve corresponds to the experimental range equivalent to a 90% increase in SDE. Boundaries present in the DM of dark photons from the FUNK, SENSEI, and Xenon10 experiments and from Xenon1T’s non-detection of dark photons of the Sun are shown in gray. Credit: Chiles et al.
“First, we carried out an analysis of the equipment construction, optical simulations to determine the optical collection efficiency, simulations of detection efficiency, calculation of the effect of polarization on the dark matter signal and the minimum signal strength compatible with possible various target properties,” Ilya Charaev, another researcher involved in the research. this, told Phys.org “Using the SNSPD technique, all incoming signals were recorded over a 180-hour exposure.”
To set a limit on dark matter incorporation, the researchers estimated the dark count level, also referred to as “noise” for the SNSPD detector they developed. Interestingly, their estimated noise values are the lowest among all values reported in the physics literature.
“We achieved our goal, because we were able to scan types of dark matter, specifically ‘dark photons’, twice as sensitive as anything in the energy range we were looking for,” said Chiles. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s still a tiny indentation of the vast array of possible dark matter. But for our first experiment to go beyond existing boundaries is an important first step, and to me, it speaks to the power and simplicity of the multilayer dielectric optical haloscope approach.”
In their experiment, this research team gathered valuable insights that could inform future dark photon searches, while also potentially driving the use of SNSPD. In addition to setting new limits on dark photons, in fact, Chiles and his colleagues learned more about the capabilities of their detector.
Most notably, they found that the noise in their detectors was very low. More specifically, the team observed only 5 “fake events” for one of their single photon detectors during 180 hours of data collection, indicating that their technology is highly sensitive to weak signals.
“It is very interesting to think about what rare event physics experiments this technology could apply to in the near future,” added Chiles. “In the meantime, we plan to scale up the experiment from here on. The first experiment is a proof of concept, but subsequent experiments will be sensitive enough to cover the large parameter space for dark matter, which will include dark axons and photons.”
Gravity wave detector to search for dark matter
Jeff Chiles et al, New Constraints on Dark Matter Photons with Superconducting Nanowire Detectors in Optical Haloscopes, Physical Review Letter (2022). DOI: 10.103/PhysRevLett.128.231802
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