First Axion Search Results of the SUPAX Prototype Experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports the first results from the SUPAX prototype, a haloscope detector designed to search for axion-like particles and dark photons in the microelectronvolt mass range, setting new exclusion limits.

Contribution

The paper presents the first experimental results from the SUPAX prototype, demonstrating its capability to probe axion-photon couplings and dark photon kinetic mixing in a specific mass range.

Findings

Excluded axion-photon couplings above 1.6×10^{-13} GeV^{-1} at 34 μeV.

Excluded dark photons with kinetic mixing parameter > 1.4×10^{-12} at 34 μeV.

Operated a copper cavity at 2 K in a 12 T magnetic field for axion searches.

Abstract

The SUPerconduction AXion search experiment (Supax) is a future haloscope-type detector designed to probe axion-like particles (ALPs) as candidates for dark matter and solutions to the strong-CP problem in the mass range between $8\,\mu$eV and $30\,\mu$eV. In the course of the preparation of Supax, a prototype experiment was built and operated. Using a copper cavity, cooled down to a temperature of 2 K and operated in a magnetic field of 12 T, we probe axion masses around $34\,\mu$eV and exclude axion-photon couplings down to $|g_{a\gamma\gamma}|> 1.6\cdot 10^{-13}$GeV$^{-1}$. The data was also used to exclude dark photons in the same mass range with a kinetic mixing parameter of $\chi > 1.4\cdot 10^{-12}$. Details of the experimental setup and the analysis strategy are summarized in this paper.