2021/09/30 by Leonardo Badurina, Diego Blas, Christopher McCabe · 35 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical interferometer #Astrophysics #Atom (system on chip) #Atom interferometer #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Computer science #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Electronic engineering #Gradiometer #Interferometry #Optics #Oscillation (cell signaling) #Parameter space #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar potential #Sensitivity (control systems) #Statistics #astro-ph.CO #hep-ex #hep-ph #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.105.023006
published in Physical review. D/Physical review. D. 105(2) (American Physical Society) · 14 pages, 5 figures. v3: matches published version
openalex created_date 2021/09/27 · openalex publication_date 2022/01/06 · arxiv created 2022/02/28 · arxiv updated 2022/03/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Atom interferometry is a powerful experimental technique that can be employed to search for the oscillation of atomic transition energies induced by ultralight scalar dark matter (ULDM). Previous studies have focused on the sensitivity to ULDM of km-length atom gradiometers, where atom interferometers are located at the ends of very long baselines. In this work, we generalize the treatment of the time-dependent signal induced by a linearly-coupled scalar ULDM candidate for vertical atom gradiometers of any length and find correction factors that especially impact the ULDM signal in short-baseline gradiometer configurations. Using these results, we refine the sensitivity estimates in the limit where shot noise dominates for AION-10, a compact 10 m gradiometer that will be operated in Oxford, and discuss optimal experimental parameters that enhance the reach of searches for linearly-coupled scalar ULDM. After comparing the reach of devices operating in broadband and resonant modes, we show that well-designed compact atom gradiometers are able to explore regions of dark matter parameter space that are not yet constrained.