NPA Zoom Seminar, Xiaoyue Li, Max Planck Institute, “Searching for axion dark matter with the dielectric haloscope MADMAX”

Event time: 
Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: 
Online () See map
Event description: 

Axions emerge naturally from the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) mechanism which addresses the absence of CP violation in QCD; the axions produced through the “vacuum realignment mechanism” are also a good cold dark matter (CDM) candidate. Traditional cavity haloscope experiments such as ADMX and HAYSTAC have focused on the ~1-10 µeV mass range, leaving the theoretically well motivated mass range of ~100 µeV unexplored. We present a novel dielectric haloscope experiment dedicated to the direct detection of the axions that constitute the local galactic dark matter halo with mass of ~100 µeV — the MAgnetized Disc and Mirror Axion eXperiment (MADMAX). Multiple dielectric discs and a metal mirror are placed in a strong magnetic field to utilize the axion-induced coherent electromagnetic waves emitted from each disc surface and their resonances within the discs-mirror system, such that the axion-induced signal can be boosted to a level detectable by state-of-the-art low noise amplifiers. In this talk, I will discuss some of the major challenges facing a dielectric haloscope like MADMAX; the design and sensitivity of MADMAX, ongoing R&D activities and the project roadmap will also be presented.