English

DMRadio-Core: A new approach for GUT-scale axion searches

High Energy Physics - Experiment 2026-04-21 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

Searches for QCD axions with masses in the neV/c2c^2 mass range are strongly motivated by new physics at the GUT scale and by well-motivated pre-inflationary axion symmetry breaking scales. This parameter space is challenging to probe due to the small axion-photon couplings, which typically require large, high-field magnets with substantial stored energy. In this paper, we propose a new experimental geometry based on a narrow-bore, segmented solenoid that optimizes the collection of the axion-induced signal using LC resonators outside the high-field region of the magnet bore. This alternative optimization significantly reduces the required stored magnetic energy while preserving sensitivity, enabling a near-term experiment in the 30-200 MHz (120-830 neV/c2c^2) range, with a cost-effective, staged scaling to a GUT-scale experiment in the 100 kHz-30 MHz (0.4-120 neV/c2c^2) range.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.16602,
  title  = {DMRadio-Core: A new approach for GUT-scale axion searches},
  author = {V. Ankel and C. Bartram and J. Begin and C. Bell and S. Chaudhuri and H. -M. Cho and J. Corbin and W. Craddock and S. Cuadra and A. Droster and J. Echevers and E. Engelhardt and J. T. Fry and K. D. Irwin and A. Keller and R. Kolevatov and A. Kunder and N. Kurita and N. Otto and E. Pariset and S. Puranam and P. Quassolo and N. M. Rapidis and C. P. Salemi and M. Simanovskaia and J. Singh and P. Stark and E. C. van Assendelft and K. van Bibber and K. J. Vetter and K. Wells and J. Wiedemann and L. Winslow and D. Wright and A. K. Yi and B. F. Zemenu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.16602},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages, 6 figures