Description:

Abstract: Optomechanical sensors have seen recent innovations which make them more useful as leading detectors of ultralight dark matter. To date they remain a less-studied class of detectors among the rapidly developing field of quantum sensors, and a full study of the potential of these sensors to detect scalar, pseudoscalar and vector DM couplings is lacking. After reviewing the necessary theoretical background to calculate their sensitivity, I will give some new insights into optimisation of these systems for DM detection and propose a new detector which can lead to new bounds on DM couplings, focusing on B-L vector DM as an illustration. This new setup, proposed in collaboration with the optomechanics group at UCL, is feasible with current technologies at their disposal, and can operate at the standard quantum limit (SQL). Finally I will briefly discuss the prospects of improving on these bounds by reaching SQL on resonance and other exciting near-future prospects.

Speaker: Louis Hamaide, University College London

Host: Andrew Geraci

Keywords: physics, CFP