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M. Givon

Publications and source records attributed to M. Givon.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

A Multi-Messenger Search for Exotic Field Emission with a Global Magnetometer Network

Quantum sensor networks in combination with traditional astronomical observations are emerging as a novel modality for multi-messenger astronomy. Here we develop a generic analysis framework that uses a data-driven approach to model the sensitivity of a quantum sensor network to astrophysical signals as a consequence of beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) physics. The analysis method evaluates correlations between sensors to search for BSM signals coincident with astrophysical triggers such as black hole mergers, supernovae, or fast radio bursts. Complementary to astroparticle approaches that search for particlelike signals (e.g. WIMPs), quantum sensors are sensitive to wavelike signals from exotic quantum fields. This analysis method can be applied to networks of different types of quantum sensors, such as atomic clocks, matter-wave interferometers, and nuclear clocks, which can probe many types of interactions between BSM fields and standard model particles. We use this analysis method to carry out the first direct search utilizing a terrestrial network of precision quantum sensors for BSM fields emitted during a black hole merger. Specifically we use the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics (GNOME) to perform a search for exotic low-mass field (ELF) bursts generated in coincidence with a gravitational wave signal from a binary black hole merger (GW200311 115853) detected by LIGO/Virgo on the 11th of March 2020. The associated gravitational wave heralds the arrival of the ELF burst that interacts with the spins of fermions in the magnetometers. This enables GNOME to serve as a tool for multi-messenger astronomy. Our search found no significant events, and consequently we place the first lab-based limits on combinations of ELF production and coupling parameters.

astro-ph.HE

What can a GNOME do? Search targets for the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches

Numerous observations suggest that there exist undiscovered beyond-the-Standard-Model particles and fields. Because of their unknown nature, these exotic particles and fields could interact with Standard Model particles in many different ways and assume a variety of possible configurations. Here we present an overview of the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches (GNOME), our ongoing experimental program designed to test a wide range of exotic physics scenarios. The GNOME experiment utilizes a worldwide network of shielded atomic magnetometers (and, more recently, comagnetometers) to search for spatially and temporally correlated signals due to torques on atomic spins from exotic fields of astrophysical origin. We survey the temporal characteristics of a variety of possible signals currently under investigation such as those from topological defect dark matter (axion-like particle domain walls), axion-like particle stars, solitons of complex-valued scalar fields (Q-balls), stochastic fluctuations of bosonic dark matter fields, a solar axion-like particle halo, and bursts of ultralight bosonic fields produced by cataclysmic astrophysical events such as binary black hole mergers.

hep-ph

In-vacuum microwave resonator for a compact cold atom frequency standard

A physics package for a compact cold atomic clock is hereby presented. The uniqueness of this package is its small dimensions that enable, for the first time, implementation of a primary cold atomic clock in a standard package of 3U height (=133mm). These dimensions are made possible by using an in-vacuum Microwave (MW) Loop Gap Resonator (LGR) whose length and diameter can be reduced from those of a typical resonator. Following our presentation of the design, we analyze the homogeneity of the MW field amplitude and phase. We find that the expected clock instability due to non-uniformity of the MW field is $\sim1.5\cdot10^{-14}$/day. Adding other clock errors, we estimate the total uncertainty of a cold atomic clock of this design will be around $\sim2\cdot10^{-14}$/day which results in a time drift of a few nanoseconds/day. Such a clock can serve as a primary-grade frequency reference, and may replace the cesium beam atomic clock and the GPS-disciplined rubidium atomic clocks.

physics.atom-ph

Survival of the fittest in the coherent evolution of quantum ensembles

We report two novel effects in an inhomogeneous ensemble of two-level systems driven by an external field. First, we observe a rigidity of the oscillation frequency: the dominant Rabi oscillation frequency does not change with the frequency of the driving field, in contrast to the well-known law of Rabi frequency increase with growing detuning of the driving field. Second, we observe a time-dependent frequency shift of the ensemble-averaged oscillation. We show that these effects follow from the inhomogeneity of the two-level splitting across the ensemble, allowing for a distribution of local oscillations in which those with high frequencies interfere destructively and decay faster than those with a low frequency, which are the only to survive in the output signal. Hence, coherence emerges from long-lived oscillations in an inhomogeneous ensemble. We analyze the Fourier spectrum of the time-dependent oscillation signal and find a non-trivial spectral structure that is double peaked for certain parameters. We show that the effects observed in alkali vapor are universal and expected in any system with a moderate inhomogeneity driven by an external field.

quant-ph