ADMX SLIC: Results from a Superconducting LC Circuit Investigating Cold Axions

N. Crisosto, P. Sikivie, N. S. Sullivan, D. B. Tanner, J. Yang, and G. Rybka

Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 241101 – Published 17 June 2020

Abstract

Axions are a promising cold dark matter candidate. Haloscopes, which use the conversion of axions to photons in the presence of a magnetic field to detect axions, are the basis of microwave cavity searches such as the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX). To search for lighter, low frequency axions in the sub- $2 \times 10^{- 7} eV$ (50 MHz) range, a tunable lumped-element LC circuit has been proposed. For the first time, through ADMX SLIC (Superconducting LC Circuit Investigating Cold Axions), a resonant LC circuit was used to probe this region of axion mass-coupling space. The detector used a superconducting LC circuit with piezoelectric driven capacitive tuning. The axion mass and corresponding frequency ranges $1.7498 - 1.7519 \times 10^{- 7} eV$ (42.31–42.36 MHz), $1.7734 - 1.7738 \times 10^{- 7} eV$ (42.88–42.89 MHz), and $1.8007 - 1.8015 \times 10^{- 7} eV$ (43.54–43.56 MHz) were covered at magnetic fields of 4.5 T, 5.0 T, and 7.0 T, respectively. Exclusion results from the search data, for coupling below $10^{- 12} {GeV}^{- 1}$ , are presented.

Received 26 November 2019
Revised 20 March 2020
Accepted 5 May 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.241101

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Particle dark matter

Axions

Dark matter detectors

Gravitation, Cosmology & AstrophysicsParticles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

N. Crisosto ^*,†,‡, P. Sikivie ^‡, N. S. Sullivan^‡, and D. B. Tanner ^‡

University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA

J. Yang ^‡ and G. Rybka^‡

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

^*Corresponding author. nmc25@uw.edu
^†Present address: Box 351560, University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 USA.
^‡All of the authors also are members of the ADMX Collaboration and the work reported reflects results obtained by those authors who worked directly on this project related to but distinct from ADMX.