Near-Quantum-limited Haloscope Detection of Dark Photon Dark Matter Enhanced by a High-Q Superconducting Cavit

TL;DR

This paper presents a highly sensitive superconducting cavity experiment that sets new constraints on dark photon dark matter detection, utilizing near-quantum-limited amplification and high quality factors to improve detection sensitivity.

Contribution

The work introduces a superconducting haloscope with a high-Q cavity and near-quantum-limited amplification, achieving the most stringent constraints on dark photons around 26.965 μeV.

Findings

Achieved a quality factor of 6×10^5 in the superconducting cavity.

Set new experimental constraints on dark photon dark matter at 26.965 μeV.

Demonstrated 100% duty cycle data collection with FPGA-based digital acquisition.

Abstract

We report new experimental results on the search for dark photons based on a near-quantum-limited haloscope equipped with a superconducting cavity. The loaded quality factor of the superconducting cavity is $6\times10^{5}$, so that the expected signal from dark photon dark matter can be enhanced by more than one order compared to a copper cavity. A Josephson parametric amplifier with a near-quantum-limited noise temperature has been utilized to minimize the noise during the search. Furthermore, a digital acquisition card based on field programmable gate arrays has been utilized to maximize data collection efficiency with a duty cycle being 100$\%$. This work has established the most stringent constraints on dark photons at around 26.965 $\mu$eV. In the future, our apparatus can be extended to search for other dark matter candidates, such as axions and axion-like particles, and scrutinize new physics beyond the Standard Model.