English

MADMAX: A new Dark Matter Axion Search using a Dielectric Haloscope

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2019-08-15 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

The axion is an intriguing dark matter candidate emerging from the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong CP problem. Current experimental searches for axion dark matter focus on the axion mass range below 40 μ\mueV. However, if the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is restored after inflation the observed dark matter density points to an axion mass around 100 μ\mueV. A new project based on axion-photon conversion at the transition between different dielectric media is presented. By using 80\sim 80 dielectric discs, the emitted power could be enhanced by a factor of 105\sim 10^5 over that from a single mirror (flat dish antenna). Within a 10 T magnetic field, this could be enough to detect 100μ\sim 100 \mueV axions with HEMT linear amplifiers. The design for an experiment is proposed. Results from noise, transmissivity and reflectivity measurements obtained in a prototype setup are presented. The expected sensitivity is shown.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1611.04549,
  title  = {MADMAX: A new Dark Matter Axion Search using a Dielectric Haloscope},
  author = {Béla Majorovits and Javier Redondo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.04549},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

Contributed to the 12th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, Jeju Island, South Korea, June 20 to 26, 2016