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Detecting Dark Matter Using Optically Trapped Rydberg Atom Tweezer Arrays

So Chigusa1, Taiyo Kasamaki2,*, Toshi Kusano3, Takeo Moroi2,4, Kazunori Nakayama5,4, Naoya Ozawa3, Yoshiro Takahashi3, Atsuhiro Umemoto4, and Amar Vutha6

  • *Contact author: kasamaki@hep-th.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 151801 – Published 14 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/s41f-6nw2

Abstract

A new scheme for detecting wavelike dark matter (DM) using Rydberg atoms is proposed. Recent advances in trapping and manipulating Rydberg atoms make it possible to use Rydberg atoms trapped in optical tweezer arrays for DM detection. We propose to prepare a large ensemble of Rydberg atoms and to observe the excitations between Rydberg states by the DM-induced effective electric field. A scan over DM mass is enabled with the use of the Zeeman and diamagnetic shifts of energy levels under an applied external magnetic field. Taking dark-photon DM as an example, we demonstrate that our proposed experiment can have high enough sensitivity to probe previously unexplored regions of the parameter space of dark-photon coupling strengths and masses.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 151801– Published 14 April, 2026
  • Received 29 July 2025
  • Accepted 18 March 2026
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