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New constraints on dark matter from superconducting nanowires

Yonit Hochberg1,*, Benjamin V. Lehmann2,†, Ilya Charaev3,4,‡, Jeff Chiles5,§, Marco Colangelo3,∥, Sae Woo Nam5,¶, and Karl K. Berggren3,**

  • 1Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
  • 2Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 3Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 4University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
  • 5National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA

  • *yonit.hochberg@mail.huji.ac.il
  • †benvlehmann@gmail.com
  • ‡charaev@mit.edu
  • §jeffrey.chiles@nist.gov
  • ∥colang@mit.edu
  • nams@boulder.nist.gov
  • **berggren@mit.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 106, 112005 – Published 9 December, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.112005

Abstract

Superconducting nanowires, a mature technology originally developed for quantum sensing, can be used as a target and sensor with which to search for dark matter interactions with electrons. Here we report on a 180-hour measurement of a tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire device with a mass of 4.3 nanograms. We use this to place new constraints on dark matter–electron interactions, including the strongest terrestrial constraints to date on sub-MeV (sub-eV) dark matter that interacts with electrons via scattering (absorption) processes.

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synopsis

Dark Matter Goes Down to the Wire

Published 9 December, 2022

A superconducting nanowire detector places new bounds on how a hypothetical lightweight dark matter particle interacts with electrons.

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Article Text

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Phys. Rev. D 106, 112005– Published 9 December, 2022
  • Received 5 November 2021
  • Accepted 26 October 2022
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