AEDGE: Atomic Experiment for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration in Space

Mauro Paternostro,D. G. Papazoglou ,Dennis Schlippert,Chen Hao Feng ,Alex Webber-Date,E. Yazgan ,André Wenzlawski,Naceur Gaaloul,Philippe Bouyer,H. Rejeb Sfar ,Peter W. Graham,J. Bernabéu ,Jonathan N. Tinsley,O. Grachov ,Ville Vaskonen,Andréa Bertoldi ,Swapan Chattopadhyay,Markus Krutzik,Achim Peters,G. M. Tino ,Christopher McCabe,L. Bathe-Peters ,Yu-Hung Lien,I. P. J. Shipsey ,Christian Vogt,H. M. Araújo ,Xuzong Chen,Miaoyuan Liu,B. Krikler ,S. Easo ,Tim Kovachy,Clare Burrage,B. Canuel ,B. E. Sauer ,Sana Amairi‐Pyka ,Albert Roura,Xavier Calmet,R. Bingham ,M. Zhan ,D. Felea ,M. Soares-Santos ,Julia Pahl,Andrei Derevianko,Jack Ringwood,Ernst M. Rasel ,Baptiste Battelier,Diego Blas,M. El Sawy ,Muhammed Sameed,Ioannis Drougkakis,C. J. Foot ,Elliot Bentine,T. J. V. Bowcock ,Saurabh Pandey,Tiffany Harte,A. Magnon ,J. J. Quenby ,Rémi Geiger ,Jason Hogan,V. Charmandaris ,Giuseppe Gaetano Luciano,Bradley J. Kavanagh,Michael Holynski,I. Duţan ,Antun Balaž,G. Cella ,J. Goldwin ,Konstantinos Tassis,Sougato Bose,Richard Hobson,Christian Schubert,Vladimir Schkolnik,C. Alpigiani ,James Unwin,L. Caramete ,V. Gibson ,Debapriya Pal,Yanou Cui,Bodil Holst,Yousef Abou El-Neaj,John Ellis,F. Sorrentino ,Georgios Vasilakis,Marian Woltmann,B. Penning ,M. Van Der Grinten ,Silvia Tentindo,Alexandre Gauguet,Mustafa Gündoğan ,Armin Shayeghi,Yeshpal Singh,T. Valenzuela ,Angelo Bassi,Dario Grasso,Dylan O. Sabulsky ,Jeremiah Mitchell,O. L. Buchmueller ,A. Belić ,Peter Dornan,C. Signorini ,A. Hees ,Andrew T. Carroll ,S. Malik ,Stefan Alaric Schäffer,Mark A. Kasevich ,Sean Ravenhall,Vasiliki Bolpasi,Ivette Fuentes,R. Flack ,M. A. Mahmoud ,J. Coleman ,J. P. Cotter ,Patrick Windpassinger,Kai Bongs,Xinhao Zou,F. Fassi ,Jure Zupan,Gian F. Giudice ,William Bowden,Maria Luisa Chiofalo,Wolf Von Klitzing ,Gedminas Elertas,Goran S. Djordjević ,Jacob Dunningham,Martin G. Haehnelt,Vishnupriya Puthiya-Veettil,M. Prevedelli ,S. Schiller ,Marek Lewicki,T. J. Sumner ,M. Doser ,A. De Roeck

doi:10.1140/epjqt/s40507-020-0080-0

Abstract

We propose in this White Paper a concept for a space experiment using cold atoms to search for ultra-light dark matter, and to detect gravitational waves in the frequency range between the most sensitive ranges of LISA and the terrestrial LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA/INDIGO experiments. This interdisciplinary experiment, called Atomic Experiment for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration (AEDGE), will also complement other planned searches for dark matter, and exploit synergies with other gravitational wave detectors. We give examples of the extended range of sensitivity to ultra-light dark matter offered by AEDGE, and how its gravitational-wave measurements could explore the assembly of super-massive black holes, first-order phase transitions in the early universe and cosmic strings. AEDGE will be based upon technologies now being developed for terrestrial experiments using cold atoms, and will benefit from the space experience obtained with, e.g., LISA and cold atom experiments in microgravity.KCL-PH-TH/2019-65, CERN-TH-2019-126

Highlights

We propose in this White Paper a concept for a space experiment using cold atoms to search for ultra-light dark matter, and to detect gravitational waves in the frequency range between the most sensitive ranges of LISA and the terrestrial LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA/INDIGO experiments
6 Summary The nature of dark matter (DM) is one of the most important and pressing in particle physics and cosmology, and one of the favoured possibilities is that it is provided by coherent waves of some ultra-light boson
As we have illustrated with some specific examples, AEDGE will be able to explore large ranges of the parameter spaces of such models, complementing the capabilities of other experiments