The Grenoble Axion Haloscope platform (GrAHal): development plan and first results

TL;DR

The Grenoble Axion Haloscope project aims to develop a sensitive platform for detecting axion dark matter, with initial results setting new exclusion limits at specific frequencies and outlining future development plans.

Contribution

This work introduces the GrAHal platform, presents its first prototype and test results, and discusses strategies to reach sensitivities for well-known axion models.

Findings

First haloscope prototype tested at liquid helium temperature.

Set a new exclusion limit of $g_{a ext{γγ}} \, \leq \, 2.2 \times 10^{-13}$ GeV$^{-1}$ around 6.375 GHz.

Outlined development plans to improve sensitivity for axion detection.

Abstract

In this note we report on the development plans and first results of the Grenoble Axion Haloscope (GrAHal) project. It is aimed at developing a haloscope platform dedicated to the search for axion dark matter particles. We discuss its general framework and the plans to reach the sensitivity required to probe well known invisible axion models, over particularly relevant axion masses and coupling regions. We also present our first haloscope prototype and the result of its test run at liquid He temperature, setting a new exclusion limit $g_{a \gamma \gamma} \leq 2.2 \times 10^{-13}~ \text{GeV}^{-1}$ ($g_{a \gamma \gamma} \leq 22 \times g_{\text{KSVZ}}$) around 6.375 GHz ($m_a \simeq 26.37$ $\mu \text{eV}$).