Quantum sensing for fundamental physics institute

31 Aug 2026, 09:00 → 11 Sept 2026, 18:00 Europe/Zurich

503/1-001 - Council Chamber (CERN)

Clara Murgui Galvez (CERN), Diego Blas (ICREA/IFAE), Hannah Banks, Joachim Kopp (Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz (DE)), Mario Reig Lopez, Maurizio Pierini (CERN)

The institute will bring together theoretical and experimental expertise to develop the science case for quantum sensing in fundamental physics. The goal is to identify how quantum sensors can be optimized to open previously unexplored regions of parameter space, clarify the most compelling targets, match them to the most suitable sensor platforms, and define a roadmap from near-term demonstrations to discovery-oriented experiments, while also assessing which physics questions can be addressed by the most mature and rapidly developing directions in quantum sensing. The goal is to identify how quantum sensors can be optimized to open previously unexplored regions of parameter space, clarify the most compelling targets, match them to the most suitable sensor platforms, and define a roadmap from near-term demonstrations to discovery-oriented experiments. The Institute will place particular emphasis on activities connected to CERN, including the Atom Interferometer CERN Experiment (AICE) and the axion-detector demonstrator, strengthening the link between theoretical motivation, experimental design, and CERN’s broader fundamental-physics program.

The format will be deliberately interactive, with only a couple of talks each day and ample time reserved for discussion. Guided discussion and brainstorming sessions will be used to identify shared challenges, compare theoretical approaches, and formulate concrete next steps. The aim is to build a broad and coherent theoretical case for quantum sensors as promising tools for fundamental physics, identifying the range of phenomena they can probe and the opportunities where CERN can play a leading role.

The registration deadline is 15th June. Accepted participants will be notified short after the deadline. 

 

Monday 31 August

13:45 → 14:00 Welcome

Speakers: Clara Murgui Galvez (CERN), Hannah Molly Banks, Mario Reig Lopez

Recording

welcome_institute.pdf

14:00 → 15:00 An idea for ultra-broadband axion dark matter detection

Speaker: Angelo Esposito

Recording

15:00 → 15:30 Coffee Break

15:30 → 16:30 The Thorium nuclear clock and atom interferometers as a sensors for ultralight DM

After a 20-year long search, the first laser excitation of the Thorium nucleus in 2024 marked a breakthrough in the development of a nuclear clock. In the short period since the discovery, not only the experiments have rapidly evolved, but also the application of the nuclear clock as a quantum sensor for new physics. I will demonstrate how the Thorium lineshape already constrains ultralight dark matter. Although optical atomic clocks are still more precise, the optical nuclear clock offers strongly enhanced sensitivity to dark matter that couples to QCD.
As a complementary, also fast evolving sensor type, I will show that an atom interferometer with existing infrastructure such as the 10m-baseline VLBAI can probe axion Dark Matter, and even more so the planned 100m-AICE at CERN.

Speaker: Elina Fuchs (DESY and Leibniz University Hannover)

CERN-TH_NuclearClock_ElinaFuchs_upload.pdf

Tuesday 1 September

09:00 → 09:30 Coffee Break

09:30 → 10:30 Quantum Error Correction for Dark Matter Detection

Speaker: Hajime Fukuda

Recording

13:30 → 14:00 Generation and Certification of Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions with Massive Particles

We present an experimental proposal for generating macroscopic quantum superpositions of levitated massive particles and a principled method for their certification. Our scheme prepares the particle’s center of mass in a delocalized state by cooling it near the ground state, releasing it into a static double-well potential, and analyzing the resulting dynamics. To rigorously certify the quantum nature of such states, we propose a hypothesis-testing framework based on position measurements. Unlike traditional reliance on interference visibility, our likelihood-ratio test exploits the full probability distribution, and achieves an exponential reduction in the amount of data required to falsify classical mechanics.

Speaker: Dr Andreu Riera Campeny (ICFO)

ARC_CERN.pdf

Wednesday 2 September

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 → 12:30 An Ultra-Cold Mechanical Quantum Sensor for Tests of New Physics.

Speaker: Andraz Omahen (ETH Zurich)

Recording

14:00 → 15:00 TH Colloquium: Quantum limits to the sensing of magnetic and magnetic-like fields

More details on https://indico.cern.ch/event/1656207/

Fundamental physics has motivated much work in quantum sensing, notably the generation of squeezed light to use in interferometric gravitational wave detectors and deep studies of the problem of phase estimation, often described as the core problem of quantum sensing. Fundamental physics increasingly employs precision measurements to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. This motivates work on precise detection of weak fields, which can signal the existence of as-yet-undetected particles and forces. Detection of the magnetic field is a paradigmatic example of field detection, for which there is abundant practical experience and - for specific sensors - model-based quantum sensitivity limits. These field-sensing limits look very different from phase estimation limits: For example, color-centre ensembles [1] and atomic vapors [2] are known to have sensitivity limited by the volume of the region over which the sample is measured, with no dependence on a quantum information resource like particle number. For dc-SQUIDs, a similar limit concerns the area over which the flux is measured [3]. Until recently, all demonstrated dc field sensors obeyed a geometric limit of this kind. I will describe what is known and is not known about such limits [4], describe recent work on exotic sensor technologies without such limits [5] and a planned experiment to apply an exotic field sensor to searches for new physics [6].
[1] Morgan W Mitchell. Scale-invariant spin dynamics and the quantum limits of field sensing. New Journal of Physics, 22(5):053041, may 2020.

[2] Ricardo Jiménez-Martínez and Svenja Knappe. Microfabricated Optically-Pumped Magnetometers, pages 523–551. Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017.

[3] Claudia D. Tesche and John Clarke. dc squid: Noise and optimization. Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 29(3):301–331, 1977.

[4] Morgan W. Mitchell and Silvana Palacios Alvarez. Colloquium: Quantum limits to the energy resolution of magnetic field sensors. Rev. Mod. Phys., 92:021001, Apr 2020.

[5] Silvana Palacios Alvarez, Pau Gomez, Simon Coop, Roberto Zamora-Zamora, Chiara Mazzinghi, and Mor- gan W. Mitchell. Single-domain Bose condensate magnetometer achieves energy resolution per bandwidth below ̄h. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6):e2115339119, 2022.

[6] Pau Gomez, Ferran Martin, Chiara Mazzinghi, Daniel Benedicto Orenes, Silvana Palacios, and Morgan W. Mitchell. Bose-Einstein condensate comagnetometer. Phys. Rev. Lett., 124:170401, Apr 2020

Speaker: Morgan Mitchell (ICFO - The Institute of Photonic Sciences)

Thursday 3 September

14:30 → 15:00 Coffee break

15:00 → 16:00 Sub-GeV dark matter searches with matter-wave interferometers

Matter-wave interferometers (MWIs) offer a uniquely quantum route to dark matter (DM) detection: DM can reveal itself through phase shifts and decoherence between spatially separated wave-packets, even when energy deposition is negligible and no recoil is resolvable. In this talk, I will discuss how atom interferometers and interferometers employing mesoscopic objects could probe spin-independent DM-nucleon interactions, both contact and long-range, for DM masses below the GeV scale. These phenomenological prospects are underpinned by recent theoretical developments for computing real-time interferometer observables, using tools such as the Schwinger-Keldysh, or in-in, formalism, which connect microscopic DM models to interferometer observables and retain the DM background's finite density. I will also emphasize novel many-body effects that can parametrically enhance the DM signal. Together, these results suggest that MWIs may explore wide and previously inaccessible regions of light DM parameter space through intrinsically quantum observables.

Speaker: Leonardo Badurina (California Institute of Technology)

Friday 4 September

10:00 → 11:00 Noisy flux-tunable qubits for ultralight dark matter

Speaker: Marianne Moore (MIT)

Recording

TH_quantum_sensing_2026.pdf

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 → 12:30 Adaptive quantum sensing for wave-like dark matter searches

Speaker: So Chigusa

45min.pdf

Recording

Monday 7 September

15:00 → 16:00 Superradiant interactions of cosmic relics

A large ensemble of two-level systems where each is prepared in an equal superposition of ground and excited states is the quantum analogue of a classical oscillating dipole. Scattering of weakly interacting particles off such a dipole is dramatically enhanced due to collective effects analogous to Dicke superradiance, where the de-excitation and excitation rates of the ensemble scale as the square of the number of particles in the system, $N^2$. The term ``superradiant interactions’’ was coined to describe these coherent inelastic processes. Furthermore, because of this collective enhancement, scattering can quickly become non-perturbative, as $N$ is increased. In this talk, I will explain the theory behind coherent inelastic processes, both in the perturbative and non-perturbative regimes, and derive observables appropriate for table-top experiments. Next, I will discuss a forthcoming proposal for demonstrating these effects utilizing thermal neutrons. Finally, if time permits, I will introduce a quantum protocol for nuclear spin squeezing that may allow us to probe a variety of Beyond the Standard Model particles, including QCD axion Dark Matter and the irreducible abundance of millicharged particles.

Speaker: Marios Galanis (Stanford)

Recording

16:00 → 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 → 17:30 Atomic frontiers in fundamental physics

Atomic systems provide a unique platform for probing physics beyond the Standard Model.
I will give a brief overview of how combining precision atomic experiment with atomic theory enables sensitive searches for new physics, including tests of fundamental symmetries, electroweak interactions, and light dark sector candidates.
I will focus in particular on scattering in atomic systems as a tool for accessing neutrino interactions and searching for dark matter and exotic particles.

Speaker: Benjamin Roberts

Recording

Slides: atomic frontiers

Tuesday 8 September

10:00 → 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 → 12:30 Discussion axion detection (Itay Bloch and Cristian Cogollos)

Wednesday 9 September

10:00 → 11:00 The Holstein-Primakoff Transformation for Light Dark Matter Detection"

Speaker: Zachary Bogorad (Fermilab)

Recording

11:00 → 11:30 coffee break

11:30 → 12:30 Quantum Metrology for Wavelike Dark Matter

Speaker: Bin Xu

Recording

Thursday 10 September

10:00 → 11:00 Cavendish Tests of Millicharged Particles

A terrestrial population of room-temperature millicharged particles can arise if they make up a dark matter subcomponent or if they are light enough to be produced in cosmic ray air showers. I will show how a simple electrified shell (e.g., a Van de Graaff generator) acts as an efficient accumulator for such particles, parametrically enhancing their local density by many orders of magnitude. A Cavendish test of Coulomb's law, performed since the late 18th century, can efficiently detect the small electric field generated by this accumulated millicharge overdensity. In particular, placing such a Cavendish test within a Van de Graaff generator can enable sensitivity to the irreducible density generated by cosmic rays. Using decades-old technology, this dedicated setup can outperform future accelerator searches for sub-GeV millicharged particles.

Speaker: Asher Berlin (Fermilab)

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 → 12:30 Quantum Dots for Chromatic Calorimetry

Speaker: Yacine Haddad (Universitaet Bern (CH))

QDs-in-calorimetry-TH-Institute.pdf

15:30 → 18:00 Visit LHCb detector

Friday 11 September

10:00 → 10:30 Tour CERN underground

10:30 → 11:00 Discussion open quantum systems

11:00 → 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 → 12:30 Closing