Multimessenger Astronomy Beyond the Standard Model: New Window from Quantum Sensors

Abstract

Ultralight bosonic (ULB) fields with mass m << 1 eV often arise in theories beyond the Standard Model (SM). If such fields exist, violent astrophysical events that result in emission of gravitational wave, photon, or neutrino signals could also produce bursts of high-density relativistic ULB fields. Detection of such ULB fields in terrestrial or space-based laboratories correlated with other signals from transient astrophysical events opens a novel avenue for multimessenger astronomy. This additionally provides a route for directly detected for fields that are otherwise very challenging to detect. I will discuss that quantum sensors are particularly well-suited to observe emitted scalar and pseudoscalar axion-like ULB fields coupled to SM, and demonstrate that multimessenger astronomy with ULB fields is possible even when accounting for matter screening effects.

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