A Finite Element Analysis of a Radio for Probing the Dark Sector

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: We report on the modeling of the electromagnetic properties of a dark matter detector designed to look for field-like dark matter. Hidden photons are massive U(1) vectors, and are attractive cold dark matter candidates. They exhibit a weak coupling to photons through kinetic mixing, allowing them to interact with Standard Model particles. This allows the presence of a background hidden photon field to be detected by using an electromagnetic resonator. This is the motivation behind Dark Matter Radio (DM Radio), an experiment that uses such a resonator to search for these particles. We present the results of modeling this resonator using finite element methods (FEM). These are techniques to numerically solve PDEs in systems that do not exhibit high degrees of symmetry. These techniques are implemented in COMSOL, which is a software that is industry standard in performing finite element analyses. We present the results of modeling the background hidden photon field as an effective current density, and measuring the observable electromagnetic fields sourced by this current density. We also study the screening current that develops in the superconducting resonator due to these fields, which is the signal that is measured. Finally, we present various measurements of the electromagnetic properties of the resonator

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 20, 2019

Author	Froland, Henry
Primary advisor	Graham, Peter
Advisor	Irwin, Kent
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Physics

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/gz630pv7998

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Froland, Henry. (2019). A Finite Element Analysis of a Radio for Probing the Dark Sector. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/gz630pv7998

Undergraduate Theses, Department of Physics

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