Chinese scientists build first quantum network to hunt for dark matter

HEFEI -- A team of Chinese scientists has created the world's first quantum sensor network designed to detect dark matter, connecting laboratories over 300 kilometers apart in the eastern Chinese cities of Hefei and Hangzhou.

Published in Nature on Thursday, the research achieved unprecedented sensitivity in searching for signals of axions -- a candidate of hypothetical particles that might comprise the universe's "missing mass." Comprising 26.8 percent of the cosmos, dark matter remains invisible, interacting only through gravity.

When Earth crosses these invisible boundaries, axions might briefly tug on atomic nuclei, generating signals fleeting as "a snowflake landing in a crowded square."

To capture these whispers, the scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China deployed five synchronized sensors across both cities. This distributed approach filters local interference by requiring signals to appear simultaneously at multiple sites.

Additionally, new quantum amplification techniques boost weak signals one-hundred-fold, while extended coherence times widen detection windows to minutes, according to the study.

Though no definitive dark matter encounter was recorded during two months of observation, the team established the strictest constraints yet on axion-nucleon coupling across an axion mass range, surpassing astronomical observations by up to 40 times in part of that certain range.

Researchers aim to expand this "quantum net" globally and into space, potentially revolutionizing how humanity explores the universe's hidden architecture, according to Peng Xinhua, co-corresponding author of the study.