To learn more about the nature of matter, energy, space, and time, physicists smash high-energy particles together in large accelerator machines, creating sprays of millions of particles per second of a variety of masses and speeds. The collisions may also produce entirely new particles not predicted by the standard model, the prevailing theory of fundamental particles and forces in our universe. Plans are underway to create more powerful particle accelerators, whose collisions will unleash even larger subatomic storms. How will researchers sift through the chaos?
The answer may lie in quantum sensors. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (which is managed by Caltech), and other collaborating institutions have developed a novel high-energy particle detection instrumentation approach that leverages the power of quantum sensors — devices capable of precisely detecting single particles.
“In the next 20 to 30 years, we will see a paradigm shift in particle colliders as they become more powerful in energy and intensity,” said Maria Spiropulu, Shang-Yi Ch’en Professor of Physics, Caltech. “And that means we need more precise detectors. This is why we are developing the quantum technology today. We want to include quantum sensing in our toolbox to optimize next-generation searches for new particles and dark matter, and to study the origins of space and time.”
Reporting in the Journal of Instrumentation, the research team, which also includes collaborators at the University of Geneva and Universidad Santa María in Venezuela, tested its new technology, called superconducting microwire single-photon detectors (SMSPDs), for the first time at Fermilab near Chicago. They exposed the quantum sensors to high-energy beams of protons, electrons, and pions, and demonstrated that the sensors were highly efficient at detecting the particles with improved time and spatial resolution compared to traditional detectors.
This is a significant step toward developing advanced detectors for future particle physics experiments, said Co-Author Si Xie, Scientist, Fermilab, who has a joint appointment at Caltech as a research scientist. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “We have the potential to detect particles lower in mass than we could before as well as exotic particles like those that may constitute dark matter.”
The quantum sensors used in the study are similar to a related family of sensors (called superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, or SNSPDs), which have applications in quantum networks and astronomy experiments. For example, researchers at JPL — who are among the world’s top experts at designing and fabricating these sensors — recently used them in the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, a technology demonstration that used lasers to transmit high-definition data from space to the ground.
Spiropulu, Xie, and other scientists from Fermilab, Caltech, and JPL have also used the SNSPD sensors in quantum networking experiments, in which they teleported information across long distances — an important step in developing a quantum internet in the future. That program, called Intelligent Quantum Networks and Technologies (INQNET), was jointly founded in 2017 by Caltech and AT&T.
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