Is there charged dark matter bound to ordinary matter? Can it produce observable quantum effects?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the possibility of detecting infinitesimally charged dark matter particles through quantum effects like squeezing and entanglement in a levitated nano-sphere system, offering a novel experimental approach.

Contribution

It proposes an experimental setup using optically trapped nano-spheres to detect charged dark matter particles via quantum optical signatures.

Findings

Absence of charged dark matter results in thermal light output.

Presence of charged dark matter could produce squeezed light and entanglement.

Room temperature quantum effects could indicate dark matter particles.

Abstract

Levitated nano-spheres of silica, optically trapped in a Fabry-Perot cavity with a single trapping field and the electrostatic field of a charged ring electrode, are used to infer the potential existence of dark matter particles with infinitesimal charge. These particles are presumed to exist in bulk matter as relics of the primordial Universe. In the absence of infinitesimally charged particles within the chosen nano-sphere, the output light in this setup should be thermal. However, if these particles do exist, the cavity's output light is expected to be squeezed even at room temperature, and one could observe entanglement between light and the nano-sphere's center of mass.