Searching for vector dark matter with an optomechanical accelerometer

TL;DR

This paper proposes using optomechanical accelerometers with specific materials to detect ultralight vector dark matter, potentially surpassing existing experimental sensitivities in a compact setup.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optomechanical detector design employing different materials to probe baryon and lepton charge couplings of dark photons, achieving high sensitivity in a tabletop experiment.

Findings

Sensitivity exceeds Eöt-Wash experiment within minutes of integration.

Detects vector B-L dark matter near 10 kHz frequency.

Potential for scalable, table-top dark matter detection experiments.

Abstract

We consider using optomechanical accelerometers as resonant detectors for ultralight dark matter. As a concrete example, we describe a detector based on a silicon nitride membrane fixed to a beryllium mirror, forming an optical cavity. The use of different materials gives access to forces proportional to baryon (B) and lepton (L) charge, which are believed to be coupling channels for vector dark matter particles ("dark photons"). The cavity meanwhile provides access to quantum-limited displacement measurements. For a centimeter-scale membrane pre-cooled to 10 mK, we argue that sensitivity to vector B-L dark matter can exceed that of the E\"{o}t-Wash experiment in integration times of minutes, over a fractional bandwidth of $\sim 0.1\%$ near 10 kHz (corresponding to a particle mass of $10^{-10}$eV/c$^2$). Our analysis can be translated to alternative systems such as levitated particles, and suggests the possibility of a new generation of table-top experiments.