DMUK Meeting December 2025 - University of Birmingham

Contribution List

2. The QSHS axion search

Prof. Ed Daw (The University of Sheffield)

01/12/2025, 09:50

Morning Session 1

Quantum Sensors for the Hidden Sector is a UK collaboration that is probing axion dark matter. I will motivate axions as a dark matter candidate, discuss the experiement, and present an update on our project.

4. A high quality factor dielectric Fabry-Perot cavity for detecting dark matter axions

Jonathan Gosling (Imperial College London)

01/12/2025, 10:10

Morning Session 1

The axion, as well as being a proposed solution to the strong CP problem, is a well-motivated candidate for dark matter [1]. The Quantum enhanced Particle Astrophysics (QuEPA) project at Imperial College London looks to detect axions with a microwave cavity and trapped electrons. Towards this goal, a dielectric Fabry-Perot cavity has been developed as a dark matter haloscope to convert axions...

3. Quantum limited superconducting resonator amplifiers for high frequency Axion dark matter search

Dr Valerio Gilles (The University of Manchester)

01/12/2025, 10:30

Morning Session 1

Superconducting Parametric Amplifiers (SPAs) have seen great interest in recent years due to their high gain and quantum limited noise performance. Among these amplifiers, resonant SPAs have been widely developed for experiments where ultra low-noise narrow-band amplification is of interest, such as the search for Axion dark matter in particle physics and the detection of spectroscopic lines...

6. Ultra-pure electroforming at Boulby deep underground laboratory

Mr Giovanni Rogers (University of Birmingham (GB), STFC Boulby Underground Laboratory)

01/12/2025, 11:10

Morning Session 2

Rare-event search experiments, for example those looking for dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay, require increasingly sensitive detectors. A critical aspect of this, is the reduction of backgrounds from detector materials, especially those in contact with the sensitive volume. High-grade copper is an attractive construction choice, due to its commercial availability and lack of...

7. Designing ultra-radiopure, high-strength, electroformed CuCr and CuCrTi alloys, for rare event searches

Dr Dimitra Spathara (University of Birmingham)

01/12/2025, 11:30

Morning Session 2

Future detecting systems for direct Dark Matter (DM) detection require ultra radiopure materials. Electroformed copper (EFCu) is the material of choice for large-scale detectors thanks to its favourable radiochemical, thermal, and electrical properties. To fulfil the unique radiopurity requirements, experiments pioneer large-scale, additive-free Cu electroformation in deep underground...

18. Status of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment

Mr Nicholas Fieldhouse (University of Oxford)

01/12/2025, 11:50

Morning Session 2

17. Complementary discoveries: how to be FAIR?

Sukanya Sinha (The University of Manchester (GB))

01/12/2025, 12:10

Morning Session 2

In the global quest for dark matter, we often think of (and wish for!) a scenario where we will have more than one experiment confirming a discovery. The question we'd like to reflect on in this poster is: how do we make sure that others can also reproduce such a finding, or in other words that the data and tools we are using are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reproducible (FAIR)? We...

9. Update on XLZD Status

Prof. Henrique Araujo (Imperial College London)

01/12/2025, 13:30

Afternoon Session 1

A brief update on the development of the XLZD Rare Event Observatory and our plans to host it in the UK.

10. Update from Boulby Underground Lab

Prof. Sean Paling (STFC Boulby Underground Lab)

01/12/2025, 13:50

Afternoon Session 1

An update on status and plans at the Boulby Underground Laboratory

11. Towards the DarkSPHERE experiment

Prof. Konstantinos Nikolopoulos (University of Hamburg/University of Birmingham)

01/12/2025, 14:10

Afternoon Session 1

12. Update on the Migdal Experiment

Mr Lex Millins (University of Birmingham & STFC RAL)

01/12/2025, 14:30

Afternoon Session 1

13. Searching for ultralight dark matter using highly charged ion clocks

Ms Mingyao Xu (Univerisity of Birmingham)

01/12/2025, 15:20

Afternoon Session 2

Highly charged ions (HCIs) offer exceptional prospects for next-generation optical clocks due to their suppressed sensitivity to external perturbations and their potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model, which could help lift the veil on the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Among them, californium (Cf) ions host optical transitions with predicted ultra-narrow linewidths and...

14. Searching for Ultralight Dark Matter with MOLeQuTE: a Massive Optically Levitated Quantum Tabletop Experiment

Louis Hamaide (MITP - JGU University of Mainz)

01/12/2025, 15:40

Afternoon Session 2

Many well theoretically motivated models of ultralight dark matter are expected to give rise to feeble oscillatory forces on macroscopic objects. Optically trapped sensors have high force sensitivies but have remained relatively unexplored in this context. In this work we propose a new, tunable, optically trapped sensor specifically designed to detect such forces. Our design features a...

8. Dark Matter live

Brij Kishor Jashal (Rutherford appelton laboratory)

01/12/2025, 16:00

Afternoon Session 2

Dark matter studies and search results published by experimental, collider and cosmological communities are frequently reported using different conventions, units and parameterisations. Limits may appear as bounds on cross-sections, event rates, branching fractions, effective couplings or model-specific parameters (for example kinetic mixing parameters, mediator couplings, or axion-photon...

15. Impact of cavities on the detection of quadratically coupled ultra-light dark matter

Mr Angus MacDonald (University of Nottingham)

01/12/2025, 16:40

Afternoon Session 3

Ultra-light scalar fields may explain the nature of the dark matter in our universe. If such scalars couple quadratically to particles of the Standard Model the scalar acquires an effective mass which depends on the local matter energy density. The changing mass causes the field to deviate from its cosmological value in experimental environments. In this work we show that the presence of a...

16. A new WIMP DM connection to the hierarchy problem

Mr Maximilian Detering (King's College London)

01/12/2025, 17:00

Afternoon Session 3

We propose a novel link between the hierarchy problem and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), suggesting that the small mass of the Higgs boson arises from the universe’s WIMP-induced proximity to the critical boundary of a phase transition. Intriguingly, such a requirement aligns with a split spectrum of new light fermions and heavy bosons expected from naturalness, and overlaps...

19. Placeholder2

Afternoon Session 3

5. Searching for ultralight dark matter using highly charged ion clocks

Ms Mingyao Xu (Univerisity of Birmingham)

Morning Session 1

Highly charged ions (HCIs) offer exceptional prospects for next-generation optical clocks due to their suppressed sensitivity to external perturbations and their potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model, which could help lift the veil on the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Among them, californium (Cf) ions host optical transitions with predicted ultra-narrow linewidths and...