Keaten Wood

Keaten Wood

PhD Candidate

Arizona State University Department of Cosmology

About

My primary research focuses on the development of highly sensitive Rb-Xe-He comagnetometers which utilize SQUIDS (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices) to achieve precision measurements of fundamental physics such as dark matter and axion searches.

Publications & Talks

  • Advances in nuclear spin coherent control, and in SQUID design, for a new measurement of the xenon-129 EDM.
    DAMOP (2026)
  • Error-correcting transition pulses for co-located spin ensembles without frequency selectivity
    arXiv:2604.19908 (2026)
  • De-Sitter Diagrammar at NLO
    arXiv:2606.XXXXX (Expected ~June 2026)

© 2026 Keaten Wood.

Detecting Ultralight Axions with SQUID Magnetometers

SQUID Magnetometer Diagram

I am a core designer, constructor, and developer of my labs SQUID Comagnetometer experiment, which is set to start taking data by the end of 2026. I have designed several aspects of the experimental structure, including the custom mumetal magnetic shielding, custom field coils, and the squid detection coil loops. I have also contributed significantly to the control and analysis software which will be crutial to the experiment.

Error-Correcting Pulses for co-located Spin Ensembles without Frequency Selectivity

Quantum Control Diagram

The precision of tipping pulses have been estimated to be a core limiter in precision physics experiments such as Xenon-129 EDM. It is crutial to build pulses that simultaneously tip Xenon-129 and Helium-3 without relying on reasonant-style frequency selectivity which makes the control sequences much too long for current operating fields. I design sharp magnetic field pulses that are not only robust to magnetic field drifts, but remain within an order of magnitude of the quantum speed limit. I demonstrate millirad-level precision in this new pulse scheme, setting the stage for a 30-fold increase in measurement sensitivity.

Are Cosmological Spacetimes Quantum Mechanically Stable?

De-Sitter Space Diagram

I maintain active research in theoretical cosmology, specifically stochastic inflation. I leverage a reinterpretation of the time derivative as a morphism on Feynman diagrams in order to compute Next-to-Leading-Log corrections to the Starobinsky's Fokker-Plank Equation. I also provide the NLL corrections to distance-separated scalar correlations, as well as a clear pathway to compute further corrections and what these terms should look like.