News & Events
Hannah Banks (New York University)
Event Details
McDonald Institute Seminar Series
Location: Queen's: STI 501 / YouTube
Date: February 26, 2026
Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Searching for Ultra-Light Dark Matter with Quantum Sensing Technologies
Abstract:
Fundamental physics has reached somewhat of a crossroads. With the as-yet absence of evidence for new particles at high energy colliders, attention has increasingly turned to the `feebly interacting frontier’ where the answers we seek are hidden not by an inaccessible energy barrier but through incredibly weak couplings to the Standard Model. Emerging quantum sensing technologies have recently unlocked a number of tantalising avenues to probe well-motived but previously inaccessible new physics scenarios in this regime. In this talk I will explore a number new ideas for exploiting these developments to search for theories of ultra-light dark matter which either manifest as an apparent oscillation of fundamental constants or exert feeble oscillatory forces on macroscopic objects. From atomic & nuclear clocks and interferometers, to a novel optically levitated optomechanical table-top experiment, I will argue that quantum sensing may have much light to shed on the dark side of the Universe, with the potential to offer unique access to large swathes of unchartered yet well-motivated theoretical territory.
The McDonald Institute seminar will be held in Stirling 501 and streamed live to the McDonald Institute YouTube channel.
A Zoom link is also available and shared via email by the organizers. Please reach out to admin@mcdonaldinstitute.ca for access.