Exploring the dark matter landscape with matter-wave interferometry

by Leonardo Badurina

Friday 22 May 2026, 12:30 → 14:30 America/Los_Angeles

48/2-224 - Madrone (SLAC)

Matter-wave interferometry is emerging as a powerful quantum-sensing technique for fundamental physics. In this talk, I will present novel ways in which matter-wave interferometers can help us chart the dark matter (DM) landscape. First, I will discuss the potential for detecting purely gravitational signatures of ultralight DM and compact DM clumps using proposed space-based atom interferometers such as AION, MAGIS, and AEDGE. Time permitting, I will also show how a trapped-ion interferometer, a genuine quantum tabletop experiment initially proposed for rotation sensing, could probe previously unexplored regions of axion-like particle and kinetically mixed dark photon DM parameter space.