arXiv subjects

Jason Arakawa

Publications and source records attributed to Jason Arakawa.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Probing Ultralight Dark Matter at the Mega-Planck Scale with the Thorium Nuclear Clock

Ultralight dark matter is expected to induce oscillations of nuclear parameters. These oscillations are characterized by extremely weak couplings or high suppression scales, with the Planck scale - the characteristic scale of quantum gravity - serving as a natural benchmark. Probing this phenomenon requires systems with exceptional sensitivity to shifts in nuclear energies. The uniquely low-energy nuclear isomeric transition in ${}^{229}$Th provides such sensitivity: it directly probes the nuclear interaction and, owing to a near cancellation between electromagnetic and nuclear contributions, its response to changes in nuclear structure is greatly amplified. We devise and perform a new type of ultrasensitive search for dark matter which uses the precision nuclear spectroscopy at JILA to set the strongest bounds in the mass range $10^{-21}\,{\rm eV} \lesssim m_{\rm DM} \lesssim 10^{-19}\,{\rm eV}$. Our results probe effective interaction scales exceeding $10^6$ times the Planck scale (the Mega-Planck scale) and establish the ${}^{229}$Th system as the leading probe of dark matter couplings to the nuclear sector.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Multimessenger Astronomy Beyond the Standard Model: New Window from Quantum Sensors

Ultralight bosonic (ULB) fields with mass $m_{\phi} \ll 1$~eV often arise in theories beyond the Standard Model (SM). If such fields exist, violent astrophysical events that result in emission of gravitational wave, photon, or neutrino signals could also produce bursts of high-density relativistic ULB fields. Detection of such ULB fields in terrestrial or space-based laboratories correlated with other signals from transient astrophysical events opens a novel avenue for multimessenger astronomy. We show that quantum sensors are particularly well-suited to observe emitted scalar and pseudoscalar axion-like ULB fields coupled to SM. We demonstrate that multimessenger astronomy with ULB fields is possible even when accounting for matter screening effects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Phase Separation Unlocks Resonant Leptogenesis

Distinct behavior of decaying particles in true and false vacua of the theory can lead to enhanced generation of baryon asymmetry, a scenario we call \textit{phase separation baryogenesis}. We demonstrate that for leptogenesis this naturally allows for right handed neutrinos to generate resonantly-enhanced lepton asymmetry without fine-tuning of their masses as in typical theories. Our mechanism allows for a variety of neutrino mass hierarchies and hence possible novel connections with observations. We present a concrete realization in a minimal model with a scalar field undergoing a phase transition.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Bosenovae with Quadratically-Coupled Scalars in Quantum Sensing Experiments

Ultralight dark matter (ULDM) particles of mass $m_ϕ\lesssim 1~{\rm eV}$ can form boson stars in DM halos. Collapse of boson stars leads to explosive bosenova emission of copious relativistic ULDM particles. In this work, we analyze sensitivity of terrestrial and space-based experiments to detect such relativistic scalar ULDM particles interacting through quadratic couplings with Standard Model constituents, including electrons, photons and gluons. We highlight key differences with searches for linear ULDM couplings. Screening of ULDM with quadratic couplings near the surface of the Earth can significantly impact observations in terrestrial experiments, motivating future space-based experiments. We demonstrate excellent ULDM discovery prospects, especially for quantum sensors, which can probe quadratic couplings orders below existing constraints by detecting bosenova events in the ULDM mass range $10^{-23}\,{\rm eV} \lesssim m_ϕ\lesssim 10^{-5}\,{\rm eV}$. We also report updated constraints on quadratic couplings of ULDM in case it comprises cold DM.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Probing Muon $g-2$ at a Future Muon Collider

The $4.2σ$ discrepancy in the $(g-2)$ of the muon provides a hint that may indicate that physics beyond the standard model is at play. A multi-TeV scale muon collider provides a natural testing ground for this physics. In this paper, we discuss the potential to probe the BSM parameter space that is consistent with solving the $(g-2)_μ$ discrepancy in the language of the SMEFT, utilizing the statistical power provided by fitting event rates collected running at multiple energies. Our results indicate the importance of including interference between the BSM and the SM amplitudes, and illustrates how a muon collider running at a handful of lower energies and with less total collected luminosity can better significantly constrain the space of relevant SMEFT coefficients than would be possible for a single high energy run.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Detection of Bosenovae with Quantum Sensors on Earth and in Space

In a broad class of theories, the accumulation of ultralight dark matter (ULDM) with particles of mass $10^{-22}~\textrm{eV} < m_ϕ < 1~\textrm{eV}$ leads the to formation of long-lived bound states known as boson stars. When the ULDM exhibits self-interactions, prodigious bursts of energy carried by relativistic bosons are released from collapsing boson stars in bosenova explosions. We extensively explore the potential reach of terrestrial and space-based experiments for detecting transient signatures of emitted relativistic bursts of scalar particles, including ULDM coupled to photons, electrons, and gluons, capturing a wide range of motivated theories. For the scenario of relaxion ULDM, we demonstrate that upcoming experiments and technology such as nuclear clocks as well as space-based interferometers will be able to sensitively probe orders of magnitude in the ULDM coupling-mass parameter space, challenging to study otherwise, by detecting signatures of transient bosenova events. Our analysis can be readily extended to different scenarios of relativistic scalar particle emission.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

New Constraints on Dark Matter and Cosmic Neutrino Profiles through Gravity

We derive purely gravitational constraints on dark matter and cosmic neutrino profiles in the solar system using asteroid (101955) Bennu. We focus on Bennu because of its extensive tracking data and high-fidelity trajectory modeling resulting from the OSIRIS-REx mission. We find that the local density of dark matter is bound by $ρ_{\rm DM}\lesssim 3.3\times 10^{-15}\;\rm kg/m^3 \simeq 6\times10^6\,\barρ_{\rm DM}$, in the vicinity of $\sim 1.1$ au (where $\barρ_{\rm DM}\simeq 0.3\;\rm GeV/cm^3$). We show that high-precision tracking data of solar system objects can constrain cosmic neutrino overdensities relative to the Standard Model prediction $\bar{n}_ν$, at the level of $η\equiv n_ν/\bar{n}_ν\lesssim 1.7 \times 10^{11}(0.1 \;{\rm eV}/m_ν)$ (Saturn), comparable to the existing bounds from KATRIN and other previous laboratory experiments (with $m_ν$ the neutrino mass). These local bounds have interesting implications for existing and future direct-detection experiments. Our constraints apply to all dark matter candidates but are particularly meaningful for scenarios including solar halos, stellar basins, and axion miniclusters, which predict or allow overdensities in the solar system. Furthermore, introducing a DM-SM long-range fifth force with a strength $\tildeα_D$ times stronger than gravity, Bennu can set a constraint on $ρ_{\rm DM}\lesssim \barρ_{\rm DM}\left(6 \times 10^6/\tildeα_D\right)$. These constraints can be improved in the future as the accuracy of tracking data improves, observational arcs increase, and more missions visit asteroids.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Neutrino Detection without Neutrino Detectors: Discovering Collider Neutrinos at FASER with Electronic Signals Only

The detection of collider neutrinos will provide new insights about neutrino production, propagation, and interactions at TeV energies, the highest human-made energies ever observed. During Run 3 of the LHC, the FASER experiment is expected to detect roughly $10^4$ collider neutrinos using its emulsion-based neutrino detector FASER$ν$. In this study, we show that, even without processing the emulsion data, low-level input provided by the electronic detector components of FASER and FASER$ν$ will be able to establish a $5σ$ discovery of collider neutrinos with as little as $5~\text{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. These results foreshadow the possible early discovery of collider neutrinos in LHC Run 3.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Is a Miracle-less WIMP Ruled Out?

We examine a real electroweak triplet scalar field as dark matter, abandoning the requirement that its relic abundance is determined through freeze out in a standard cosmological history (a situation which we refer to as a 'miracle-less WIMP'). We extract the bounds on such a particle from collider searches, searches for direct scattering with terrestrial targets, and searches for the indirect products of annihilation. Each type of search provides complementary information, and each is most effective in a different region of parameter space. LHC searches tend to be highly dependent on the mass of the SU(2) charged partner state, and are effective for very large or very tiny mass splitting between it and the neutral dark matter component. Direct searches are very effective at bounding the Higgs portal coupling, but ineffective once it falls below $λ_{\text{eff}} \lesssim 10^{-3}$. Indirect searches suffer from large astrophysical uncertainties due to the backgrounds and $J$-factors, but do provide key information for $\sim$ 100 GeV to TeV masses. Synthesizing the allowed parameter space, this example of WIMP dark matter remains viable, but only in miracle-less regimes.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

First neutrino interaction candidates at the LHC

FASER$ν$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to directly detect collider neutrinos for the first time and study their cross sections at TeV energies, where no such measurements currently exist. In 2018, a pilot detector employing emulsion films was installed in the far-forward region of ATLAS, 480 m from the interaction point, and collected 12.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. We describe the analysis of this pilot run data and the observation of the first neutrino interaction candidates at the LHC. This milestone paves the way for high-energy neutrino measurements at current and future colliders.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2021

Annihilogenesis

We investigate a novel interplay between the decay and annihilation of a particle whose mass undergoes a large shift during a first order phase transition, leading to the particles becoming trapped in the false vacuum and enhancing their annihilation rates as the bubbles of true vacuum expand. This opens up a large region of the parameter space where annihilations can be important. We apply this scenario to baryogenesis, where we find that annihilations can be enhanced enough to generate the requires baryon asymmetry even for relatively tiny annihilation cross sections with modest CP asymmetries.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

An Emergent Solution to the Strong CP Problem

We construct a theory in which the solution to the strong CP problem is an emergent property of the background of the dark matter in the Universe. The role of the axion degree of freedom is played by multi-body collective excitations similar to spin-waves in the medium of the dark matter of the Galactic halo. The dark matter is a vector particle whose low energy interactions with the Standard Model take the form of its spin density coupled to $G \widetilde{G}$, which induces a potential on the average spin density inducing it to compensate $\overlineθ$, effectively removing CP violation in the strong sector in regions of the Universe with sufficient dark matter density. We discuss the viable parameter space, finding that light dark matter masses within a few orders of magnitude of the fuzzy limit are preferred, and discuss the associated signals with this type of solution to the strong CP problem.

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