Searching for Invisible Axion Dark Matter with an 18T Magnet Haloscope

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for axion dark matter using an 18T superconducting magnet haloscope, setting new upper bounds on axion-photon coupling in the 19.76-19.89 μeV mass range with high sensitivity.

Contribution

The study introduces the use of an 18T high-temperature superconducting magnet haloscope combined with a Josephson parametric converter for sensitive axion searches in a new high mass range.

Findings

No axion signal detected within the scanned frequency range.

Established the most stringent upper bounds on axion-photon coupling in the 19.76-19.89 μeV range.

Achieved high sensitivity using the strongest magnetic field and low-noise microwave amplification.

Abstract

We report the first search results for axion dark matter using an 18\,T high-temperature superconducting magnet haloscope. The scan frequency ranges from 4.7789 to 4.8094\,GHz. No significant signal consistent with the Galactic halo dark matter axion is observed. The results set the best upper bound of axion-photon-photon coupling ($g_{a\gamma\gamma}$) in the mass ranges of 19.764 to 19.771\,$\mu$eV (19.863 to 19.890\,$\mu$eV) at 1.5$\times|g_{a\gamma\gamma}^{\text{KSVZ}}|$ (1.7$\times|g_{a\gamma\gamma}^{\text{KSVZ}}|$), and 19.772 to 19.863\,$\mu$eV at 2.7 $\times|g_{a\gamma\gamma}^{\text{KSVZ}}|$ with 90\% confidence level, respectively. This remarkable sensitivity in the high mass region of dark matter axion is achieved by using the strongest magnetic field among the existing haloscope experiments and realizing a low-noise amplification of microwave signals using a Josephson parametric converter.