Searches for massive neutrinos with mechanical quantum sensors
arXiv:2207.05883 · doi:10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.010315
Abstract
The development of quantum optomechanics now allows mechanical sensors with femtogram masses to be controlled and measured in the quantum regime. If the mechanical element contains isotopes that undergo nuclear decay, measuring the recoil of the sensor following the decay allows reconstruction of the total momentum of all emitted particles, including any neutral particles that may escape detection in traditional detectors. As an example, for weak nuclear decays the momentum of the emitted neutrino can be reconstructed on an event-by-event basis. We present the concept that a single nanometer-scale, optically levitated sensor operated with sensitivity near the standard quantum limit can search for heavy sterile neutrinos in the keV-MeV mass range with sensitivity significantly beyond existing constraints. We also comment on the possibility that mechanical sensors operated well into the quantum regime might ultimately reach the sensitivities required to provide an absolute measurement of the mass of the light neutrino states.
arXiv comment11 pages + refs, 7 figures. v2: published version (+ an appendix containing a quantum model of the 3-body decay in a nanosphere)
References in corpus (64)
- Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
- Introduction to Quantum Noise, Measurement and Amplification
- Enhancing the sensitivity of the LIGO gravitational wave detector by using squeezed states of light
- Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing
- The fate of hints: updated global analysis of three-flavor neutrino oscillations
- Precision Electroweak Measurements on the Z Resonance
- A Spin Entanglement Witness for Quantum Gravity
- Gravitationally-induced entanglement between two massive particles is sufficient evidence of quantum effects in gravity
- Motional Quantum Ground State of a Levitated Nanoparticle from Room Temperature
- Synthetic three-dimensional atomic structures assembled atom by atom
- Direct Detection of WIMP Dark Matter: Concepts and Status
- Levitodynamics: Levitation and control of microscopic objects in vacuum
- Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
- Real-time optimal quantum control of mechanical motion at room temperature
- Quantum control of a nanoparticle optically levitated in cryogenic free space
- Optomechanics with Levitated Particles
- Sterile Neutrinos
- Search for Millicharged Particles Using Optically Levitated Microspheres
- Tabletop experiments for quantum gravity: a user's manual
- Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project: active neutrino properties and the light sterile case
- Frequency-Dependent Squeezing for Advanced LIGO
- Force and acceleration sensing with optically levitated nanogram masses at microkelvin temperatures
- Ytterbium nuclear-spin qubits in an optical tweezer array
- 2000-times repeated imaging of strontium atoms in clock-magic tweezer arrays
- Optical levitation of 10 nanogram spheres with nano- acceleration sensitivity
- Rapid production of uniformly-filled arrays of neutral atoms
- Searching for new physics using optically levitated sensors
- Present status and future challenges of non-interferometric tests of collapse models
- Mechanical Quantum Sensing in the Search for Dark Matter
- Controlling the net charge on a nanoparticle optically levitated in vacuum
- Disentangling Neutrino Oscillations
- Constraints on Sterile Neutrinos in the MeV to GeV Mass Range
- Large Quantum Delocalization of a Levitated Nanoparticle using Optimal Control: Applications for Force Sensing and Entangling via Weak Forces
- Search for composite dark matter with optically levitated sensors
- Quantum-Limited Position Detection and Amplification: A Linear Response Perspective
- Room temperature test of the Continuous Spontaneous Localization model using a levitated micro-oscillator
- Direct Measurements of Neutrino Mass
- Optimal Position Detection of a Dipolar Scatterer in a Focused Field
- Levitated Spinning Graphene
- Bounds on light sterile neutrino mass and mixing from cosmology and laboratory searches
- Colloidal transport through optical tweezer arrays
- Limit on sterile neutrino contribution from the Mainz Neutrino Mass Experiment
- Direct Detection of Classically Undetectable Dark Matter through Quantum Decoherence
- Limits on the Existence of sub-MeV Sterile Neutrinos from the Decay of Be in Superconducting Quantum Sensors
- Searching for dark matter sterile neutrino in laboratory
- Coherent scattering of low mass dark matter from optically trapped sensors
- Mechanical squeezing via unstable dynamics in a microcavity
- A search for an additional neutrino mass eigenstate in 2 to 100 eV region from "Troitsk nu-mass" data - detailed analysis
- Decoherence as a way to measure extremely soft collisions with dark matter
- Search for non-Newtonian interactions at micrometer scale with a levitated test mass
- Levitated electromechanics: all-electrical cooling of charged nano- and micro-particles
- A Design for an Electromagnetic Filter for Precision Energy Measurements at the Tritium Endpoint
- Combined analysis of neutrino decoherence at reactor experiments
- Limits on the abundance of millicharged particles bound to matter
- Trapped electrons and ions as particle detectors
- Dy electron-capture: a strong new candidate for neutrino mass determination
- Implementation and Optimization of the PTOLEMY Transverse Drift Electromagnetic Filter
- Ferromagnetic Gyroscopes for Tests of Fundamental Physics
- Back-action evading impulse measurement with mechanical quantum sensors
- Strong Mechanical Squeezing for a Levitated Particle by Coherent Scattering
- Observation of an ultra-low -value electron-capture channel decaying to As via high-precision mass measurement
- Testing Dissipative Collapse Models with a Levitated Micromagnet
- Quantum Induced Broadening- A Challenge For Cosmic Neutrino Background Discovery
- Neutrino Decoherence and the Mass Hierarchy in the JUNO Experiment
Cited by in corpus (14)
- Quantum theory of light interaction with a Lorenz-Mie particle: Optical detection and three-dimensional ground-state cooling
- An strategy for taming nuclear-structure dependence of extractions: the superallowed transition
- Superallowed nuclear beta decays and precision tests of the Standard Model
- Dark Matter Searches with Levitated Sensors
- Quantum Optical Binding of Nanoscale Particles
- Mechanical detection of nuclear decays
- Sensing microscopic directional noise baths with an optically cooled and levitated nanoparticle
- Collision-resolved pressure sensing
- Optical Levitation of Arrays of Microspheres
- Magnetic noise in macroscopic quantum spatial superposition
- Search for Dark Matter Scattering from Optically Levitated Nanoparticles
- High-precision measurements of the atomic mass and electron-capture decay value of Tc
- Optomechanical vector sensing of new forces at 6 micron separation
- Selective Loading of a Micrometer-Scale Particle into a Magneto-Gravitational Trap by Sublimation-Activated Release