Speaker
Description
There has been growing interest in using quantum sensing technologies for novel particle physics measurements. We perform the first search for ultralight dark matter using a magnetically levitated particle at Leiden University. A sub-millimeter permanent magnet is levitated in a superconducting trap with a measured force sensitivity of \SI{0.2}{fN/\sqrt{Hz}}. We find no evidence of a signal and derive limits on dark matter coupled to the difference between baryon and lepton number, $B - L$, in the mass range $(1.10360 \text{--} 1.10485) \times 10^{-13} eV / c^2$. Our most stringent limit on the coupling strength is $g_{B - L} \lesssim 2.98 \times 10^{-21}$. We have proposed the POLONAISE (Probing Oscillations using Levitated Objects for Novel Accelerometry in Searches of Exotic physics) experiment, featuring short-, medium-, and long-term upgrades that will give us leading sensitivity in a wide mass range and demonstrating the promise of this novel quantum sensing technology in the hunt for dark matter.
