Exploring dark matter with quantum-enhanced haloscopes and time projection chambers

TL;DR

This work analyzes dark matter detection through two complementary avenues: gas-based time projection chambers (TREX-DM) and quantum-enhanced haloscopes. It demonstrates how Micromegas and GEM technologies can push WIMP searches to low masses by achieving sub-keV thresholds and low backgrounds, including innovative UV-calibration and high-pressure gas studies. On the axion/dark-photon front, the thesis presents haloscope-based searches, multicavity RADES developments, and the DarkQuantum initiative that leverages superconducting qubits to surpass the standard quantum limit in photon counting. Together, these efforts fuse classical and quantum sensing to extend sensitivity to light dark matter candidates and lay a foundation for future high-sensitivity dark matter experiments. The results include stringent constraints on dark photon interactions around 5.051 GHz and demonstration of a viable single-photon counter scheme within a practical haloscope setup.

Abstract

This thesis explores experimental and theoretical approaches to dark matter detection, from gas-based detectors to quantum sensors, tackling the challenge of identifying dark matter, which makes up 27% of the Universe's energy. It reviews astrophysical and cosmological evidence, highlights the Standard Model's limitations, and motivates searches for WIMPs, axions, and dark photons through direct, indirect, and collider-based strategies. The experimental work includes the Micromegas-based TREX-DM experiment for low-mass WIMPs, with studies of argon and neon-based gas mixtures, detector design, shielding, readout, and background suppression. GEM integration boosted gain by up to 45. A UV LED-based internal calibration system was developed for compact, low-background operation, while pressure-dependent gain studies optimized future low-background TPCs. The thesis also advances axion and dark photon searches via haloscopes and introduces the DarkQuantum prototype, a superconducting qubit coupled to microwave cavities for single-photon detection. This system enabled the most stringent exclusion limit on massive dark photon interactions at 5.051 GHz, demonstrating the feasibility of quantum-enhanced detectors. Overall, the work bridges classical and quantum detection techniques, advancing WIMP searches and pioneering compact quantum sensors for axion and dark photon detection, laying the foundation for future high-sensitivity dark matter experiments.

Figures (158)

• Figure 1: Rotation curve from NGC 6503 galaxy: when moving away from the galactic centre, the speed of the stars remains constant instead of falling. The halo pattern can be explained by dark matter bertone2005particle.
• Figure 2: Bullet cluster composite image combining optical, X-ray and gravitational lensing. The optical image from the Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies in orange and white in the background. Hot gas, which contains the bulk of the normal matter in the cluster, is shown by the Chandra X-ray image in pink. Gravitational lensing reveals the mass of the cluster, dominated by dark matter, in blue. Original study and similar pictures in clowe2006direct.
• Figure 3: The dark matter content in the Universe can be extracted from the power spectrum of anisotropies of the CMB. A deeper and pedagogical approach can be found in the CMB section of AstroWiki, from where this image was extracted.
• Figure 4: Tree of proposed solutions for dark matter problem. Beautiful image from bertone2018new.
• Figure 5: WIMP differential rates from nuclear recoils induced by a $m_\chi = 100$ GeV WIMP for several target materials considering $\sigma_{SI} = 10^{-47} \text{cm}^2$. Equation \ref{['eq:DiffRate2']} is used to obtain these spectra. Image from schumann2019direct.