Towards the Direct Detection of Composite Ultraheavy Dark Matter in Quantum Sensor Arrays

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum sensor arrays can detect composite ultraheavy dark matter with finite size and long-range interactions, providing sensitivity projections and insights into the dark matter's structure.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for detecting and characterizing composite ultraheavy dark matter using quantum sensors, considering various density profiles and interaction models.

Findings

Sensitivity depends on the dark matter's size, the sensor spacing, and the Yukawa screening length.

Quantum sensor arrays can distinguish between point-like and extended dark matter profiles.

Future arrays could reveal the mass and size of ultraheavy dark matter particles.

Abstract

Quantum sensor arrays have recently been proposed as a promising platform for the direct detection of ultraheavy dark matter, which is typically assumed to behave as a point-like particle. However, particles with masses at or above the Planck scale cannot be elementary; instead, they must exist as composite objects with finite spatial extent. Such spatially extended dark matter models lead to distinctive phenomenology in these detectors, particularly when the dark matter also interacts through long-range forces with their own characteristic length scales. In this work, we study the sensitivity of quantum sensor arrays to composite, ultraheavy dark matter interacting via both gravity and a novel Yukawa force. We consider three phenomenologically motivated density profiles -- a tophat, a Gaussian, and an exponential -- and contrast their signals with the point-like limit. Using a Monte Carlo analysis based on the predicted impulse signals and estimates of thermal and quantum noise, we obtain sensitivity projections for a future realization of a quantum sensor array. We find a non-trivial interplay between the dark-matter scale radius, the inter-sensor spacing, and the Yukawa screening length. Future accelerometer arrays would provide valuable information about the mass and size of composite ultraheavy dark matter, and our work will help to characterize the signatures of different theoretical models of ultraheavy dark matter.