ADAMOS: Axion Daily Modulation Searches for Dark Matter at 20 GHz

TL;DR

ADAMOS is a novel experiment using a 20 GHz cavity resonator with innovative design and calibration to search for various axion signals, aiming to uncover new aspects of dark matter.

Contribution

It introduces a high-frequency axion haloscope with a thin-shell design and continuous calibration, enabling new searches for axions and related dark matter phenomena.

Findings

Design of a 20 GHz cavity resonator with large detection volume

Implementation of continuous in situ calibration to reduce gain drifts

Potential to detect cold, relativistic, and transient axion signals

Abstract

The ADAMOS (Axion Daily Modulation Searches) project aims to explore the nature of dark matter (DM) through a novel axion haloscope experiment. We propose to construct a fixed-frequency cavity resonator operating at 20 GHz at the University of Hamburg, using an innovative "thin-shell" design that preserves a large detection volume at high frequencies. The experiment will be installed in an existing 14 T superconducting magnet and connected to a highly sensitive RF chain with continuous in situ calibration to eliminate temperature-dependent gain drifts, constituting an essential improvement based on lessons learned from previous attempts. ADAMOS will conduct simultaneous searches for three classes of axion signals: (1) conventional cold DM axions, (2) relativistic axions from axion quark nugget annihilations exhibiting daily modulations, and (3) transient enhancements from streaming DM. By targeting this unexplored frequency regime with a robust, calibrated, and versatile setup, ADAMOS will open new discovery channels in a previously unexplored region of the dark sector.