Northwestern Events Calendar

Oct
23
2018

CFP Colloquium: Kent Irwin: The Dark Matter Radio and the fundamental limits of electromagnetic axion and hidden-photon searches

When: Tuesday, October 23, 2018
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM CT

Where: Technological Institute, F160, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Contact: Laura Nevins   (847) 467-6678

Group: Center for Fundamental Physics Colloquia

Category: Lectures & Meetings

Description:

One of the most enduring mysteries in particle physics is the nature of the non-baryonic dark matter that makes up 85% of the matter in the universe. For several decades, most searches for this mysterious substance have focused on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Recently, there has been a surge in theoretical interest in ultra-light, wave-like dark matter candidates, including axions (spin 0 bosons) and hidden photons (spin 1 bosons). The Dark Matter Radio (DM Radio) is an experiment searching for axions and hidden photons by their coupling to a lumped-element electromagnetic resonator in the frequency range of 300 Hz through 300 MHz. I will describe the fundamental limits on the scan sensitivity of axion and hidden-photon dark matter searches probing the electromagnetic coupling with a phase-insensitive amplifier, and how these fundamental limits strongly motivate the use of quantum measurement techniques in dark-matter searches. These techniques can be used to evade the standard quantum limit by the exploitation of quantum correlations in the electromagnetic signals in a resonator. I will focus on use of quantum measurement techniques in the radio-frequency frequency range accessed by DM Radio (below ~300 MHz), where the resonator is not in the ground state in practical experiments (kT>hf), and describe the Zappe Photon Upconverter (ZPU), which can be used to implement techniques including backaction evasion to outperform the Standard Quantum Limit at RF frequencies.

Professor Kent Irwin, Stanford University

Host: CFP

Keywords: Physics, Center for Fundamental Physics

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