http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01492
Hidden sector $U(1)$ vector bosons created from inflationary fluctuations can be a substantial fraction of dark matter if their mass is around $10^{-5}$eV which is the order of the Lamb-shift between S wave and P wave in atoms. Due to the creation mechanism, the dark matter vector bosons are condensate with a very small velocity dispersion which makes their energy spectral density $\rho_{cdm}/\Delta E$ very high therefore boost the dark electric dipole transition rates in cooling atoms or ions if the energy gap between states equals the mass of vector bosons. The energy difference between quantum states in atoms can be tuned using the Zeeman effect. In addition, the excited state of atoms can be pumped into a highly excited state, order of eV above the ground state, with a tunable laser. The laser frequency is set so no other states will be excited. The highly excited state with a short lifetime then spontaneously emits photon which can be detected. Choices of target material are many depending on facility of experiment and interested vector boson’s mass ranges. Since the mass of the vector boson is connected to the inflation scale, our experiment may provide a probe to inflation.
Q. Yang and H. Di
Tue, 7 Jun 16
9/80
Comments: 11 pages, 2 figures. Q. Yang uses a new email address
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