Vector field dark matter search with Sagnac interferometer

Abstract

We present the first calculation showing that a material-asymmetric Sagnac speed meter can improve quantum-noise-limited sensitivity to $B-L$ vector dark matter by nearly two orders of magnitude over a Fabry--Perot Michelson position meter at the low-mass end of the band. We introduce material contrast into a dual-ring interferometer to probe composition-dependent $B-L$ forces and compare the two configurations at equal incident power, input-mirror transmissivity, and cavity round-trip length. For sapphire mirrors and a one-week benchmark, the quantum-noise-only median expected $95\%$ CL upper limit reaches $1.2\times 10^{-27}$ at $m_A=4.1\times 10^{-14}\mathrm{eV}/c^2$ ($10\mathrm{Hz}$), a factor-$57$ improvement. This band-edge forecast assumes negligible classical noise; sensitivity at $10\mathrm{Hz}$ is not established for a realizable suspension and isolation system. The material-induced displacement is essentially identical in both configurations, with the gain arising from reduced low-frequency quantum backaction. These results identify speed-meter readout as a promising route to lower-mass vector-dark-matter searches.

8 pages, 3 figures