Villum Fonden - Teknisk og naturvidenskabelig forskning - Darkness Illuminated - Dark Matter forces from light-atom experiments

We propose a novel nonlinear quantum optics tabletop experiment to provide new information on the interactions between Dark Matter (DM) and ordinary known matter, possibly via a new force of Nature. DM are the unknown particle(s) which we infer from astronomy to make up mostofthemassintheUniverse. AmaingoalistotestacurrentDMhypothesiswhichrequiressuch a new force beyond the 4 currently known - at a fraction of the cost of experiments like the Large Hadron Colider (LHC) at CERN which aim to do the same. While discovering a new force of nature is extremely challenging, we are confident that we will provide novel limits on the possible strength of such a force where LHC and other experiments cannot