An Ultra-Cold Mechanical Quantum Sensor for Tests of New Physics

[2507.02653] Ultracold Mechanical Quantum Sensor for Tests of New Physics Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Quantum Physics arXiv:2507.02653 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 3 Jul 2025 ( v1 ), last revised 8 May 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: Ultracold Mechanical Quantum Sensor for Tests of New Physics Authors: Andraz Omahen , Simon Storz , Marius Bild , Dario Scheiwiller , Matteo Fadel , Yiwen Chu View a PDF of the paper titled Ultracold Mechanical Quantum Sensor for Tests of New Physics, by Andraz Omahen and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Initialization of mechanical modes in the quantum ground state is crucial for their use in quantum information and quantum sensing protocols. In quantum processors, impurity of the modes' initial state affects the infidelity of subsequent quantum algorithms. In quantum sensors, excitations out of the ground state contribute to the noise of the detector, and their prevalence puts a bound on rare events that deposit energy into the mechanical modes. In this work, we measure the excited-state populations of GHz-frequency modes in a high-overtone bulk acoustic wave resonator (HBAR). We find that the population of the first excited state can be as low as $P_p$=(1.2$\pm$5.5)$\times10^{-5}$, corresponding to an effective temperature of 25.2 mK, which are upper bounds limited by imperfections in the measurement process. These results compare favorably to the lowest populations measured in superconducting circuits. Finally, we use the measured populations to constrain the amplitude of high-frequency gravitational waves, the kinetic mixing strength of ultra-light dark matter, and non-linear modifications of the Schrödinger equation describing wavefunction collapse mechanisms. Our work establishes HBARs as a versatile resource for quantum state initialization and studies of fundamental physics. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) ; Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) Cite as: arXiv:2507.02653 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2507.02653v2 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.02653 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1103/1bk5-zgvj Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Andraz Omahen [ view email ] [v1] Thu, 3 Jul 2025 14:18:28 UTC (4,900 KB) [v2] Fri, 8 May 2026 14:42:29 UTC (4,908 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Ultracold Mechanical Quantum Sensor for Tests of New Physics, by Andraz Omahen and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev | next > new | recent | 2025-07 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mes-hall References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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