arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Gabriele Pisacane.
We review recent interferometric schemes designed to probe physics beyond the Standard Model through the detection of geometric phases. We discuss how interactions with hidden-sector degrees of freedom, such as axion-like particles and mirror-matter candidates, can induce potentially observable phase shifts in ordinary fermion systems.
We review recent results showing that, within the framework of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, the semiclassical energy-momentum tensor of the neutrino flavor vacuum fulfills the equation of state of dust and cold dark matter. By considering spherically symmetric spacetimes in the weak field approximation, the flavor vacuum is shown to contribute as a Yukawa correction to the Newtonian potential. We discuss how this modified potential provides a mechanism to account for the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies. In this perspective, neutrino mixing is presented as a viable contributing factor to the dark matter content of the universe.
The nature of dark matter remains an outstanding problem in particle physics and cosmology. Hidden-sector extensions of the Standard Model predict a neutral partner of the neutron, whose weak mixing with ordinary neutrons induces oscillations between visible and dark baryonic states. We show that macroscopic quantum interferometry provides a direct and experimentally accessible probe of this phenomenon. In particular, a Mach--Zehnder interferometer with very cold neutrons converts neutron--hidden neutron oscillations into measurable phase-dependent intensity modulations. By combining controlled phase shifts with tunable magnetic fields and material potentials, the setup enables a resonant exploration of the hidden-sector parameter space. We find that existing cold-neutron facilities can probe mixing amplitudes down to $\epsilon_{nn'} \sim 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$ for mass splittings $\delta m \sim 10^{-9}\,\mathrm{eV}$, accessing a previously unexplored region of parameter space relevant to baryonic dark matter scenarios. These results establish neutron interferometry as a precision laboratory tool for testing hidden-sector physics.
We discuss the role of quantum reference frames in providing a viable definition of rest frame for mixed particles. We then analyze the related concept of frame-dependent entanglement and its impact on the phenomenology of neutral mesons and neutrinos.
We analyse the interaction of photons with a scalar dark matter field \phi and we propose to use a single arm interferometer to reveal this interaction and constrain the parameters of the scalar dark matter model. By considering a beam of coherent light and two spatially separated squeezing operations, we show that the interaction of photons with scalar dark matter leads to an observable deviation in the outgoing light state, with respect to free evolution. Therefore the single arm interferometer may yield a novel revelation method for scalar dark matter.
We show that experiments designed to capture low energy neutrinos, like PTOLEMY are sensitive to the specific neutrino model. In particular, they might show a signature of the condensed flavor vacuum, featured in the flavor Fock space model, and allow to test the hypothesis according to which a possible dark matter component is determined by neutrino mixing.
We report a novel neutron interferometry scheme aimed at probing the potential existence of mirror neutrons, which have been proposed as viable dark matter candidates. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates that if mirror neutrons exist, ordinary neutrons would acquire a measurable geometric phase as a result of their mixing with these mirror counterparts.
We show that, in the framework of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, the semiclassical energy-momentum tensor of the neutrino flavor vacuum fulfills the equation of state of dust and cold dark matter. We consider spherically symmetric spacetimes, and we demonstrate that, within the weak field approximation, the flavor vacuum contributes as a Yukawa correction to the Newtonian potential. This corrected potential may account for the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies. In this perspective, neutrino mixing could contribute to dark matter
We propose a novel neutron interferometry setup to explore the potential existence of mirror neutrons, a candidate for dark matter. Our work demonstrates that if mirror neutrons exist, neutrons will acquire an observable geometric phase due to mixing with these mirror counterparts. This geometric phase, detectable through our interferometric setup, could serve as a direct probe for the presence of mirror matter particles. Additionally, this investigation could shed light on unresolved issues in particle physics, such as the neutron lifetime puzzle. We discuss the setup's versatility and limitations, showing its capability to explore a wide range of parameters in neutron interferometry and potentially uncover new physics.