Mechanical Quantum Sensing in the Search for Dark Matter

Understand

Numerous astrophysical and cosmological observations are best explained by the existence of dark matter, a mass density which interacts only very weakly with visible, baryonic matter.

• Searching for the extremely weak signals produced by this dark matter strongly motivate the development of new, ultra-sensitive detector technologies.
• Paradigmatic advances in the control and readout of massive mechanical systems, in both the classical and quantum regimes, have enabled unprecedented levels of sensitivity.
• In this white paper, we outline recent ideas in the potential use of a range of solid-state mechanical sensing technologies to aid in the search for dark matter in a number of energy scales and with a variety of coupling mechanisms.