Abstract
We propose using trapped electrons as high-Q resonators for detecting meV dark photon dark matter. When the rest energy of the dark photon matches the energy splitting of the two lowest cyclotron levels, the first excited state of the electron cyclotron will be resonantly excited. A proof-of-principle measurement, carried out with one electron, demonstrates that the method is background free over a 7.4 day search. It sets a limit on dark photon dark matter at 148 GHz (0.6 meV) that is around 75 times better than previous constraints. Dark photon dark matter in the 0.1-1 meV mass range (20-200 GHz) could likely be detected at a similar sensitivity in an apparatus designed for dark photon detection.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 261801 |
| Journal | Physical review letters |
| Volume | 129 |
| Issue number | 26 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 23 2022 |
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, National QIS Research Centers, Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11359. Additional support was provided by NSF Grants No. PHY-1903756, No. PHY-2110565, and No. PHY-2014215; by the John Templeton Foundation Grants No. 61906 and No. 61039; by the Simons Investigator Award No. 824870; by the DOE HEP QuantISED Award No. 100495; by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant No. GBMF7946; and by the Masason Foundation. S. W. was supported in part by the Clark Fellowship. Y. X. was supported in part by the Vincent and Lily Woo Fellowship.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy