Dark Matter Signals on a Laser Interferometer

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and KAGRA to detect WIMP dark matter through characteristic mirror motions, proposing a novel detection method that could surpass existing experimental limits for certain WIMP masses.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to dark matter detection using interferometric gravitational wave detectors and estimates the detectability of WIMP interactions with these instruments.

Findings

Potential to set stricter upper limits on WIMP-nucleon cross section for low WIMP masses.

Order-of-magnitude improvement in detection sensitivity around 0.2 GeV WIMP mass.

Signal-to-noise ratio estimates suggest feasibility of detection with current or future detectors.

Abstract

WIMPs are promising dark matter candidates. A WIMP occasionally collides with a mirror equipped with interferometric gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA and the Einstein Telescope (ET). When WIMPs collide with a mirror of an interferometer, we expect that characteristic motions of the pendulum and mirror are excited, and those signals could be extracted by highly sophisticated sensors developed for gravitational wave detection. We analyze the motions of the pendulum and mirror, and estimate the detectability of these motions. For the "Thin-ET" detector, the signal-to-noise ratio may be $ 1.7 \left( \frac{ m_{\rm{DM}} }{ 100 \rm{GeV} } \right) $, where $ m_{\rm{DM}} $ is the mass of a WIMP. We may set a more strict upper limit on the cross section between a WIMP and a nucleon than the limits obtained by other experiments so far when $ m_{\rm{DM}} $ is approximately lower than 0.2 GeV. We find an order-of-magnitude improvement in the upper limit around $ m_{\rm{DM}} = 0.2 {\rm{GeV}} $.