1212.3061 (C. Jess Riedel)

Direct Detection of Dark Matter through Quantum Decoherence    [PDF]

C. Jess Riedel

Astrophysical and cosmological observations suggest that the majority of mass in the universe is made up of invisible dark matter. Although various pieces of indirect evidence about its nature have been collected, the direct detection of dark matter has eluded experimental searches despite extensive effort. If the mass of dark matter is below 1 MeV, it is essentially imperceptible to conventional detection methods because negligible energy is transferred to nuclei during collisions. Here I propose directly detecting dark matter through the quantum decoherence it causes rather than its classical effects such as recoil or ionization. I show that quantum spatial superpositions are sensitive to low-mass dark matter which is inaccessible to classical techniques. More generally, this method enables the detection of hypothetical new phenomena which have no classical influence on normal matter whatsoever. This provides new independent motivation for the experimental pursuit of macroscopic superpositions, which have recently seen rapid progress.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.3061