Quantum-limited impulse sensing with optically-levitated nanoparticles

Recent progress in levitated optomechanics has yielded many novel applications to fundamental physics in the quantum measurement regime. Optically trapped nanoparticles in high vacuum can be used as impulse sensors with momentum sensitivity approaching the standard quantum limit, enabling competitive searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. Our group has already achieved world-leading constraints on dark matter that couples to neutrons via long range interactions using this approach, while efforts are currently underway to extend this technique to the study of weak nuclear decays. By doping silica nanoparticles with radioactive isotopes, decay-induced recoils can be used to reconstruct the total momentum of emitted particles on an event-by-event basis, an impossible task using traditional detectors. In this talk, I will present the latest progress toward a first experimental search for heavy sterile neutrinos using this method.