- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Mechanical sensors for ultraheavy dark matter searches via long-range forces

Juehang Qin1,2,*, Dorian W. P. Amaral1, Sunil A. Bhave3,2, Erqian Cai1, Daniel Carney4, Rafael F. Lang5,2, Shengchao Li5,†, Alberto M. Marino6,2, Giacomo Marocco4 et al.

Claire Marvinney6,2, Jared R. Newton5,2, Jacob M. Taylor7,8, and Christopher Tunnell9,1

  • *Contact author: qinjuehang@rice.edu
  • †Present address: Department of Physics, School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310030, People’s Republic of China.
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 112, 072003 – Published 7 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/d1gv-l2kh

Abstract

Dark matter candidates with masses around the Planck scale are theoretically well-motivated, and it has been suggested that it might be possible to search for dark matter solely via gravitational interactions in this mass range. In this work, we explore the pathway towards searching for dark matter candidates with masses around the Planck scale using mechanical sensors while considering realistic experimental constraints, and develop analysis techniques needed to conduct such searches. These dark matter particles are expected to leave tracks as their signature in mechanical sensor arrays, and we show that we can effectively search for such tracks using statistical approaches to track-finding. We analyze a range of possible experimental setups and compute sensitivity projections for searches for ultraheavy dark matter coupling to the Standard Model via long-range forces. We find that while a search for Planck-scale dark matter purely via gravitational couplings would be exceedingly difficult, requiring ∼80  dB of quantum noise reduction with a 1003 array of devices, there is a wide range of currently unexplored dark matter candidates which can be searched for with already existing or near-term experimental platforms.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (72)

  1. R. L. Workman (Particle Data Group), Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2022, 083C01 (2022).S
  2. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041003 (2023).
  3. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 261002 (2023).
  4. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 011802 (2025).
  5. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 109, 112010 (2024).
  6. P. A. Amaudruz et al. (DEAP-3600 Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 071801 (2018).
  7. E. Behnke et al., Astropart. Phys. 90, 85 (2017).
  8. E. Adams et al. (PICO Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 108, 062003 (2023).
  9. D. W. P. Amaral, D. G. Uitenbroek, T. H. Oosterkamp, and C. D. Tunnell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 251001 (2025).
  10. C. V. Cappiello, J. I. Collar, and J. F. Beacom, Phys. Rev. D 103, 023019 (2021).
  11. P. Adhikari et al. (DEAP Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 011801 (2022).
  12. D. Baxter et al., Eur. Phys. J. C 81, 907 (2021).
  13. D. Carney et al., SciPost Phys. Core 6, 075 (2023).
  14. C. Blanco, B. Elshimy, R. F. Lang, and R. Orlando, Phys. Rev. D 105, 115031 (2022).
  15. B. V. Lehmann, C. Johnson, S. Profumo, and T. Schwemberger, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2019) 046.
  16. B. Carr and F. Kuhnel, SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 48, 1 (2022).
  17. S. Profumo, in Primordial Black Holes edited by C. Byrnes, G. Franciolini, T. Harada, P. Pani, and M. Sasaki (Springer, Singapore, 2025).
  18. E. W. Kolb, D. J. H. Chung, and A. Riotto, AIP Conf. Proc. 484, 91 (1999).
  19. E. W. Kolb, A. A. Starobinsky, and I. I. Tkachev, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2007) 005.
  20. E. W. Kolb and A. J. Long, Phys. Rev. D 96, 103540 (2017).
  21. K. Harigaya, T. Lin, and H. K. Lou, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2016) 014.
  22. M. I. Gresham, H. K. Lou, and K. M. Zurek, Phys. Rev. D 97, 036003 (2018).
  23. M. B. Wise and Y. Zhang, Phys. Rev. D 90, 055030 (2014); 91, 039907(E) (2015).
  24. K. Enqvist, A. Jokinen, T. Multamaki, and I. Vilja, Phys. Lett. B 526, 9 (2002).
  25. E. Cotner and A. Kusenko, Phys. Rev. D 94, 123006 (2016).
  26. Y. Bai, A. J. Long, and S. Lu, Phys. Rev. D 99, 055047 (2019).
  27. D. Carney, S. Ghosh, G. Krnjaic, and J. M. Taylor, Phys. Rev. D 102, 072003 (2020).
  28. E. W. Kolb and A. J. Long, Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045005 (2024).
  29. F. Monteiro, G. Afek, D. Carney, G. Krnjaic, J. Wang, and D. C. Moore, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 181102 (2020).
  30. A. Arvanitaki and S. Dimopoulos, Phys. Rev. D 108, 043517 (2023).
  31. P. F. Smith and J. D. Lewin, Phys. Lett. 127B, 185 (1983).
  32. D. Carney et al., Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 024002 (2021).
  33. A. Attanasio et al. (Windchime Collaboration), in Snowmass 2021 (2022), arXiv:2203.07242.
  34. B. Gao, J. Sheng, and T. T. Yanagida, arXiv:2502.16437.
  35. M. C. Digman, C. V. Cappiello, J. F. Beacom, C. M. Hirata, and A. H. G. Peter, Phys. Rev. D 100, 063013 (2019); 106, 089902(E) (2022).
  36. J. Qin and R. F. Lang, Eur. Phys. J. C 83, 1029 (2023).
  37. G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), J. Instrum. 16, P07006 (2021).
  38. S. Chatrchyan et al. (CMS Collaboration), J. Instrum. 9, P10009 (2014).
  39. J. Buchner, Stat. Surv. 17, 169 (2023).
  40. J. Qin, Computational Techniques for the Direct Detection of Dark Matter (Purdue University, 2023).
  41. D. Foreman-Mackey, J. Open Source Software 1, 24 (2016).
  42. E. Gross and O. Vitells, Eur. Phys. J. C 70, 525 (2010).
  43. A. E. Bayer and U. Seljak, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2020) 009.
  44. M. Janse, D. G. Uitenbroek, L. van Everdingen, J. Plugge, B. Hensen, and T. H. Oosterkamp, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 033076 (2024).
  45. J. Hofer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 043603 (2023).
  46. M. G. Latorre, G. Higgins, A. Paradkar, T. Bauch, and W. Wieczorek, Phys. Rev. Appl. 19, 054047 (2023).
  47. C. Timberlake, G. Gasbarri, A. Vinante, A. Setter, and H. Ulbricht, Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 224101 (2019).
  48. C. Errando-Herranz, A. Y. Takabayashi, P. Edinger, H. Sattari, K. B. Gylfason, and N. Quack, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 26, 1 (2020).
  49. A. G. Krause, M. Winger, T. D. Blasius, Q. Lin, and O. Painter, Nat. Photonics 6, 768 (2012).
  50. A. Vinante, P. Falferi, G. Gasbarri, A. Setter, C. Timberlake, and H. Ulbricht, Phys. Rev. Appl. 13, 064027 (2020).
  51. T. M. Fuchs, D. G. Uitenbroek, J. Plugge, N. van Halteren, J.-P. van Soest, A. Vinante, H. Ulbricht, and T. H. Oosterkamp, Sci. Adv. 10, eadk2949 (2024).
  52. B. Richman, S. Ghosh, D. Carney, G. Higgins, P. Shawhan, C. J. Lobb, and J. M. Taylor, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 023141 (2024).
  53. B. Malayappan, U. P. Lakshmi, Prabhakar Rao B. V. V. S. N., K. Ramaswamy, and P. K. Pattnaik, Optik (Stuttgart) 243, 166955 (2021).
  54. R. C. Pooser, N. J. Savino, E. Batson, J. L. Beckey, J. Garcia, and B. J. Lawrie, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 230504 (2020).
  55. J. Aalbers, Dark Matter Search with XENON1T (University of Amsterdam, 2018), 10.5281/zenodo.3551727.
  56. J. Aalbers, B. Pelssers, and K. D. Morå, Jelleaalbers/wimprates: v0.3.1 (2019).
  57. K. Freese, M. Lisanti, and C. Savage, Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 1561 (2013).
  58. C. M. Caves, K. S. Thorne, R. W. P. Drever, V. D. Sandberg, and M. Zimmermann, Rev. Mod. Phys. 52, 341 (1980).
  59. A. A. Clerk, M. H. Devoret, S. M. Girvin, F. Marquardt, and R. J. Schoelkopf, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1155 (2010).
  60. T.-C. Lee, J. L. Beckey, G. Marocco, and D. Carney, Phys. Rev. Res. 7, 033041 (2025).
  61. S. Chakram, Y. S. Patil, L. Chang, and M. Vengalattore, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 127201 (2013).
  62. D. R. Artusa et al. (CUORE Collaboration), Eur. Phys. J. C 74, 2956 (2014).
  63. M. I. Hollister, R. C. Dhuley, and G. L. Tatkowski, IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 1241, 012045 (2022).
  64. M. Dowran, A. Kumar, B. J. Lawrie, R. C. Pooser, and A. M. Marino, Optica 5, 628 (2018).
  65. Q. Glorieux, L. Guidoni, S. Guibal, J.-P. Likforman, and T. Coudreau, Phys. Rev. A 84, 053826 (2011).
  66. H. Vahlbruch, M. Mehmet, K. Danzmann, and R. Schnabel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 110801 (2016).
  67. B. van Heck, T. M. Fuchs, J. Plugge, W. A. Bosch, and T. H. Oosterkamp, J. Low Temp. Phys. 210, 588 (2023).
  68. https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan
  69. R. Harnik, Z. Liu, and O. Palamara, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2019) 170.
  70. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 111302 (2018).
  71. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041002 (2023).
  72. L. Magrini, P. Rosenzweig, C. Bach, A. Deutschmann-Olek, S. G. Hofer, S. Hong, N. Kiesel, A. Kugi, and M. Aspelmeyer, Nature (London) 595, 373 (2021).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 112, 072003– Published 7 October, 2025
  • Received 24 March 2025
  • Accepted 21 August 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation