Models of ultra-heavy dark matter visible to macroscopic mechanical sensing arrays

Understand

In recent years, the sensitivity of opto-mechanical force sensors has improved leading to increased interest in using these devices as particle detectors.

• In this study we consider scenarios where dark matter with mass close to the Planck scale may be probed by a large array of opto-mechanical accelerometers.
• We motivate a macroscopic mechanical search for ultra-heavy dark matter, exemplified by the efforts of the Windchime collaboration, by providing a survey of the model space that would be visible to such a search.
• We consider two classes of models, one that invokes a new long-range unscreened force and another that is only gravitationally interacting.