Search for: All records

The history of astronomy has shown that advances in sensing methods open up new windows to the Universe and often lead to unexpected discoveries. Quantum sensor networks in combination with traditional astronomical observations are emerging as a novel modality for multimessenger astronomy. Here we develop a generic analysis framework that uses a data-driven approach to model the sensitivity of a quantum sensor network to astrophysical signals as a consequence of beyond-the-standard model (BSM) physics. The analysis method evaluates correlations between sensors to search for BSM signals coincident with astrophysical triggers, such as black hole mergers, supernovae, or fast radio bursts. Complementary to astroparticle approaches that search for particlelike signals (e.g., weakly interacting massive particles), quantum sensors are sensitive to wavelike signals from exotic quantum fields. This analysis method can be applied to networks of different types of quantum sensors, such as atomic clocks, matter-wave interferometers, and nuclear clocks, which can probe many types of interactions between BSM fields and standard model particles. We use this analysis method to carry out the first direct search utilizing a terrestrial network of precision quantum sensors for BSM fields emitted during a black hole merger. Specifically, we use the global network of optical magnetometers for exotic physics (GNOME) to perform a search for exotic low-mass field (ELF) bursts generated in coincidence with a gravitational-wave signal from a binary black hole merger (GW200311_115853) detected by LIGO/Virgo on the March 11, 2020. The associated gravitational wave heralds the arrival of the ELF burst that interacts with the spins of fermions in the magnetometers. This enables GNOME to serve as a tool for multimessenger astronomy. Our search found no significant events and, consequently, we place the first lab-based limits on combinations of ELF production and coupling parameters. 

Earth can act as a transducer to convert ultralight bosonic dark matter (axions and hidden photons) into an oscillating magnetic field with a characteristic pattern across its surface. Here we describe the first results of a dedicated experiment, the Search for Noninteracting Particles Experimental Hunt, that aims to detect such dark-matter-induced magnetic-field patterns by performing correlated measurements with a network of magnetometers in relatively quiet magnetic environments (in the wilderness far from human-generated magnetic noise). Our experiment constrains parameter space describing hidden-photon and axion dark matter with Compton frequencies in the 0.5–5.0 Hz range. Limits on the kinetic-mixing parameter for hidden-photon dark matter represent the best experimental bounds to date in this frequency range. 

Abstract Ultralight bosons such as axion-like particles are viable candidates for dark matter. They can form stable, macroscopic field configurations in the form of topological defects that could concentrate the dark matter density into many distinct, compact spatial regions that are small compared with the Galaxy but much larger than the Earth. Here we report the results of the search for transient signals from the domain walls of axion-like particles by using the global network of optical magnetometers for exotic (GNOME) physics searches. We search the data, consisting of correlated measurements from optical atomic magnetometers located in laboratories all over the world, for patterns of signals propagating through the network consistent with domain walls. The analysis of these data from a continuous month-long operation of GNOME finds no statistically significant signals, thus placing experimental constraints on such dark matter scenarios. 

Abstract Numerous observations suggest that there exist undiscovered beyond‐the‐standard‐model particles and fields. Because of their unknown nature, these exotic particles and fields could interact with standard model particles in many different ways and assume a variety of possible configurations. Here, an overview of the global network of optical magnetometers for exotic physics searches (GNOME), the ongoing experimental program designed to test a wide range of exotic physics scenarios, is presented. The GNOME experiment utilizes a worldwide network of shielded atomic magnetometers (and, more recently, comagnetometers) to search for spatially and temporally correlated signals due to torques on atomic spins from exotic fields of astrophysical origin. The temporal characteristics of a variety of possible signals currently under investigation such as those from topological defect dark matter (axion‐like particle domain walls), axion‐like particle stars, solitons of complex‐valued scalar fields (Q‐balls), stochastic fluctuations of bosonic dark matter fields, a solar axion‐like particle halo, and bursts of ultralight bosonic fields produced by cataclysmic astrophysical events such as binary black hole mergers are surveyed.