Probing warm dark matter with a magnetic moment

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K14269
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Particle/Nuclear/Cosmic ray/Astro physics
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Inada Toshiaki 東京大学, 素粒子物理国際研究センター, 特任研究員 (20779269)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 素粒子実験 / 暗黒物質

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The main components of this experiments are the optics used to detect the small Faraday rotation signal from dark matter and a magnetic-field generation system. The long-term stability of the optical cavity is very important and the resistance to external disturbance has significantly been improved during this research period. Since the sensitivity to magnetic moments and dark matter mass is enhanced by using a strong magnetic field, a prototype magnet producing a peak field of about 20 T was developed. The calibration run using nitrogen gas showed the expected sensitivity and a pilot search has been made ready.

Free Research Field

素粒子・原子核・宇宙線・宇宙物理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

暗黒物質は全宇宙のエネルギー密度の27%を占め、銀河の回転速度、宇宙の大規模構造、宇宙背景輻射スペクトル、重力レンズ効果等の観測からその存在は揺るぎないものとなっている。しかし暗黒物質の質量や種々の量子数といった基本的な性質に加え、重力相互作用以外の、標準理論で記述される粒子との具体的な結合については明らかでない。精密光学系を駆使することで電磁場との結合を持つ軽質量の暗黒物質を探索可能であり、宇宙の進化や時空の構造に対する新たな知見となる。