HeLIOS: The Superfluid Helium Ultralight Dark Matter Detector with Optomechanical Transducer

ORAL

Abstract

Cavity optomechanical systems can probe the motion of a mechanical oscillator with unprecedented sensitivity, providing the opportunity to search for new physics. If dark matter (DM) contains ultralight bosonic particles, they would behave as a classical wave and manifest through an oscillating force on baryonic matter that is coherent over ∼106 periods1,2. Our Helium ultraLIght dark matter Optomechanical Sensor (HeLIOS) utilizes the high-Q acoustic modes of superfluid helium-4 to resonantly amplify this signal to displacements larger than thermal motion at millikelvin temperatures, which can be read out through a superconducting re-entrant microwave cavity as sensitive optomechanical transducer3. Pressurizing the helium allows for the unique possibility of tuning the mechanical frequency and broadening the DM detection bandwidth. The first-generation HeLIOS detector could explore unconstrained parameter space for both scalar and vector ultralight DM after a few minutes of integration time4,5.

1Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 031102 (2016). 2Phys. Rev. A 97, 042506 (2018). 3Phys. Rev. D 104, 082001 (2021). 4Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 151301 (2020). 5Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 061301 (2021).

*University of Alberta; NSERC, Canada (RGPIN-2016-04523, RGPIN-2022-03078, CREATE-495446-17); Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute; NSF, USA (PHY-2047707, PHY-1912480); Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, USA (FA9550-22-1-0323).

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Presenters

  • Marvin Hirschel

    • University of Alberta

Authors

  • Marvin Hirschel

    • University of Alberta

  • Vaisakh Vadakkumbatt

    • University of Alberta

  • Noah Baker

    • University of Alberta

  • Ryan Petery

    • University of Delaware

  • Swati Singh

    • University of Delaware

  • John P Davis

    • Univ of Alberta
    • University of Alberta