Topological Superconductors and Dark Matter Searches in Gravitational Wave Interferometers

Abstract

This work is comprised of research in two areas: superconductors and gravitational waves. Superconductors have led to novel fundamental discoveries, including new topological states. These states are robust, in that they are not altered by common changes to their environment. Here, I will introduce three studies focused on topological properties of various superconductors. First, newly proposed even-parity superconducting state in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ introduces the emergence of topologically protected Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces. Next, I will discuss topological bands and odd-parity superconductivity in UTe$_2$, which suggest Weyl nodes and their potential topological properties. Lastly, anomalous pseudospin in non-symmorphic materials shows different symmetry properties than the usual spin-1/2 and has its applications on BiS$_2$, UPt$_3$, Fe-based superconductors, and UCoGe. LIGO and Virgo are laser interferometers designed to detect gravitational waves, enabling a variety of physical analyses. One important aspect involves measuring the spacetime volume sensitivity $\langle VT \rangle$. The researchers typically inject simulated signals to measure $\langle VT \rangle$ which is computationally expensive. I will present a machine learning method to reduce the computational cost of this process. Furthermore, these detectors can conduct dark matter searches. My research proposes a hypothesis that dark matter particles decay into gravitational waves, producing detectable blip glitches, which have traditionally been considered as noise. I will present a dimensional and data analysis to test the plausibility of my hypothesis