Single Phonon Detection for Dark Matter via Quantum Evaporation and Sensing of $^3$Helium

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel detection method for low-mass dark matter particles using phonon-assisted quantum evaporation and quantum sensors to detect tiny energy transfers down to a few meV.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach combining quantum evaporation and sensing techniques to detect dark matter interactions with extremely low energy transfers.

Findings

Potential to detect dark matter particles in the keV/c$^2$ mass range.

Extends detection sensitivity to energy transfers as low as a few meV.

Proposes a feasible experimental setup for low-mass dark matter detection.

Abstract

Dark matter is five times more abundant than ordinary visible matter in our Universe. While laboratory searches hunting for dark matter have traditionally focused on the electroweak scale, theories of low mass hidden sectors motivate new detection techniques. Extending these searches to lower mass ranges, well below 1 GeV/c$^2$, poses new challenges as rare interactions with standard model matter transfer progressively less energy to electrons and nuclei in detectors. Here, we propose an approach based on phonon-assisted quantum evaporation combined with quantum sensors for detection of desorption events via tracking of spin coherence. The intent of our proposed dark matter sensors is to extend the parameter space to energy transfers in rare interactions to as low as a few meV for detection of dark matter particles in the keV/c$^2$ mass range.