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A new frontier in the search for dark matter (DM) is based on the idea of detecting the decoherence caused by DM scattering against a mesoscopic superposition of normal matter. Such superpositions are uniquely sensitive to very small momentum transfers from new particles and forces, especially DM with a mass below 100 MeV. Here we investigate what sorts of dark sectors are inaccessible with existing methods but would induce noticeable decoherence in the next generation of matter interferometers. We show that very soft, but medium range (0.1 nm - 1 $mu$m) elastic interactions between nuclei and DM are particularly suitable. We construct toy models for such interactions, discuss existing constraints, and delineate the expected sensitivity of forthcoming experiments. The first hints of DM in these devices would appear as small variations in the anomalous decoherence rate with a period of one sidereal day. This is a generic signature of interstellar sources of decoherence, clearly distinguishing it from terrestrial backgrounds. The OTIMA experiment under development in Vienna will begin to probe Earth-thermalizing DM once sidereal variations in the background decoherence rate are pushed below one part in a hundred for superposed 5-nm gold nanoparticles. The proposals by Bateman et al. and Geraci et al. could be similarly sensitive, although they would require at least a month of data taking. DM that is absorbed or elastically reflected by the Earth, and so avoids a greenhouse density enhancement, would not be detectable by those three experiments. On the other hand, the aggressive proposals of the MAQRO collaboration and Pino et al. would immediately open up many orders of magnitude in DM mass, interaction range, and coupling strength, regardless of how DM behaves in bulk matter.
Galactic rotation curves are often considered the first robust evidence for the existence of dark matter. However, even in the presence of a dark matter halo, other galactic-scale observations, such as the Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation and the Radia
We present some back-of-the-envelope calculations to try to understand cold dark matter, its searches, and extensions of the Standard Model. Some of the insights obtained from this exercise may be useful.
We propose a scenario that the Electroweak-Skyrmion, a solitonic object made of the Higgs field and the electroweak gauge fields, is identified as an asymmetric dark matter. In this scenario, the relic abundance of the dark matter is related to the b
We propose a new strategy to search for dark matter axions in the mass range of 40--400 $mu$eV by introducing dielectric haloscopes, which consist of dielectric disks placed in a magnetic field. The changing dielectric media cause discontinuities in
The unambiguous detection of Galactic dark matter annihilation would unravel one of the most outstanding puzzles in particle physics and cosmology. Recent observations have motivated models in which the annihilation rate is boosted by the Sommerfeld