Frontiers of Quantum Metrology for New Physics Searches
Bad Honnef Physics School
Lecture 1
Why to search for new physics?
Marianna Safronova
Useful Links for Lecture 1
This article reviews recent developments in tests of fundamental physics using atoms and molecules, including the subjects of parity violation, searches for permanent electric dipole moments, tests of the CPT theorem and Lorentz symmetry, searches for spatiotemporal variation of fundamental constants, tests of quantum electrodynamics, tests of general relativity and the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, dark energy, and extra forces, and tests of the spin-statistics theorem. Key results are presented in the context of potential new physics and in the broader context of similar investigations in other fields. Ongoing and future experiments of the next decade are discussed.
Focus on Quantum Sensors for New-Physics Discoveries, Quantum Science and Technology
Editors Marianna Safronova and Dmitry Budker
This focus issue includes and Editorial and over 20 papers of different topics.
Extraordinary progress in quantum sensors and technologies opens new avenues for exploring the Universe and testing the assumptions forming the basis of modern physics. This QST Focus Issue is a next-decade roadmap on developing a wide range of quantum sensors and new technologies towards discoveries of new physics. The Focus issue covers the next generation of various technologies, including atomic and nuclear clocks, atomic and diamond-based magnetometers, atom and laser interferometers, control of trapped atoms, ions, and molecules, optomechanical systems, and many others. New modalities for using such sensors are also discussed.
Lecture 2
Clocks & Quantum Logic Spectroscopy I
Piet Schmidt
Lecture 3
Atom interferometry theory and applications
Naceur Gaaloul
Lecture 4
Towards low-energy tests of quantum gravity:
From quantum gravity phenomenology to graviton detection
Igor Pikovski
Lectures 5 - 6
Optical lattice and nuclear clocks
Dark matter searches and quantum sensors in space
Marianna Safronova
Lecture 7
Dark Matter – motivation & searches
Elina Fuchs
Lecture 8
Clocks & Quantum Logic Spectroscopy II
Piet Schmidt
Lecture 9
Electric Dipole Moments (EDM) and also some Magnetic Dipole Moments (MDM)
Eric Cornell
School project
How to solve open problems in fundamental physics?
Where to start with the project?
Pathways to Innovation and Discovery in Particle Physics:
Report of the 2023 Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel
Quantum Sensors for High Energy Physics, Aaron Chou et al., arXiv:2311.01930 (2024).
Useful links for the project
The Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise (a.k.a. “Snowmass”) is organized by the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society. Snowmass is a scientific study. It provides an opportunity for the entire particle physics community to come together to identify and document a scientific vision for the future of particle physics in the U.S. Snowmass will define the most important questions for the field of particle physics and identify promising opportunities to address them.
Physics Highlights from the Frontiers, YouTube video, Snowmass Seattle meeting plenary session. This video is a good place to start to look for ideas – it has a summary of ideas for next decade of US particle physics and starts with the discussion of grand challenges.
Cosmic Frontier Large Projects Report, is a brief summary of problems and solutions for dark energy, inflation , and QCD phase transition questions that include plan for large-scale future experiments. You can use it as an example of “How to solve an open problem in particle physics” summary. This report is available via Seattle Snowmass workshop indico page.
- Dark Matter Models and Motivation, Tim Tait (UCI), YouTube video, Snowmass Theory Frontier Conference at KITP.
- Axions and ultralight dark matter, Masha Baryakhtar (UW), YouTube video, Snowmass Theory Frontier Conference at KITP.
Quantum sensing for particle physics, Steven D. Bass and Michael Doser, Nature Reviews Physics 6, 329 (2024).
Snowmass 2021: Quantum Sensors for HEP Science – Interferometers, Mechanics, Traps, and Clocks, Oliver Buchmueller, Daniel Carney, Thomas Cecil, John Ellis, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, Andrew A. Geraci, David Hanneke, Jason Hogan, Nicholas R. Hutzler, Andrew Jayich, Shimon Kolkowitz, Gavin W. Morley, Holger Muller, Zachary Pagel, Christian Panda, Marianna S. Safronova, arXiv:2203.07250 (2022).
Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry: Summary of the Second Workshop, Adam Abdalla et al., EPJ Quantum Technology 12, 42 (2025).
Cold Atoms in Space: Community Workshop Summary and Proposed Road-Map, Ivan Alonso et al., EPJ Quantum Technol. 9, 30 (2022).
- The Snowmass 2021 Energy Frontier Report. This report, as part of the 2021 Snowmass Process, summarizes the current status of collider physics at the Energy Frontier, the broad and exciting future prospects identified for the Energy Frontier, the challenges and needs of future experiments, and indicates high priority research areas.
- Snowmass Cosmic Frontier Report. This report summarizes the current status of Cosmic Frontier physics and the broad and exciting future prospects identified for the Cosmic Frontier as part of the 2021 Snowmass Process. Topics include dark matter, dark energy, inflation, some neutrino topics, and others.
- Snowmass Neutrino Frontier Report. This report summarizes the current status of neutrino physics and the broad and exciting future prospects identified for the Neutrino Frontier as part of the 2021 Snowmass Process.
- Snowmass Theory Frontier Report. This report summarizes the recent progress and promising future directions in theoretical high-energy physics identified within the Theory Frontier of the 2021 Snowmass Process.
- Report of the Frontier For Rare Processes and Precision Measurements. This is the Snowmass 2021 Rare and Precision Frontier Report. The Rare Processes and Precision Measurements Frontier, referred to as the “Rare and Precision Frontier”, or RPF, encompasses searches for extremely rare processes or tiny deviations from the Standard Model (SM) that can be studied with intense sources and high-precision detectors. Our community studies have identified several unique research opportunities that may pin down the scales associated with New Physics interactions and constrain the couplings of possible new degrees of freedom. Searches for rare flavor transition processes and precision measurements are indispensable probes of flavor and fundamental symmetries, and provide insights into physics that manifests itself at higher energy or through weaker interactions than those directly accessible at high-energy colliders. EDM experiments are part of this report, see next link for more details.
- Fundamental Physics in Small Experiments. Part of Rare and Precision Frontier. This report presents a broad set of small-scale research projects that could provide key new precision measurements in the areas of electric dipole moments, magnetic dipole moments, fermion flavor violation, tests of spacetime symmetries, and tests with gravity. The growing impact of these high-precision studies in high energy physics and the complementary input they provide compared to large-scale efforts warrants strong support over the next decades. In particular, EDM searches are expected to improve sensitivities by four or more orders of magnitude in the next decade or two
Useful links for wavelike dark matter
Report of the Topical Group on Wave Dark Matter for Snowmass 2021
The Search for Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter, open access book, Editors: Derek F. Jackson Kimball and Karl van Bibber. Designed for the advanced undergraduate, 1st year graduate student studying dark matter
Axions are well-motivated dark matter candidates with simple cosmological production mechanisms. They were originally introduced to solve the strong CP problem, but also arise in a wide range of extensions to the Standard Model. This Snowmass white paper summarizes axion phenomenology and outlines next-generation laboratory experiments proposed to detect axion dark matter. There are vibrant synergies with astrophysical searches and advances in instrumentation including quantum-enabled readout, high-Q resonators and cavities and large high-field magnets. This white paper outlines a clear roadmap to discovery, and shows that the US is well-positioned to be at the forefront of the search for axion dark matter in the coming decade.
New Horizons: Scalar and Vector Ultralight Dark Matter
The last decade has seen unprecedented effort in dark matter model building at all mass scales coupled with the design of numerous new detection strategies. Transformative advances in quantum technologies have led to a plethora of new high-precision quantum sensors and dark matter detection strategies for ultralight (<10eV) bosonic dark matter that can be described by an oscillating classical, largely coherent field. This white paper focuses on searches for wavelike scalar and vector dark matter candidates.