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First Search for Axion Dark Matter with a MADMAX Prototype

B. Ary dos Santos Garcia1, D. Bergermann1, A. Caldwell2, V. Dabhi3, C. Diaconu3, J. Diehl2, G. Dvali2, J. Egge4, E. Garutti4 et al. (MADMAX Collaboration)

E. Garutti4, S. Heyminck5, F. Hubaut3, A. Ivanov2, J. Jochum6, S. Knirck7, M. Kramer5, D. Kreikemeyer-Lorenzo2, C. Krieger4, C. Lee2,*, D. Leppla-Weber8, X. Li2,†, A. Lindner8, B. Majorovits2, J. P. A. Maldonado2, A. Martini8, A. Miyazaki9, E. Öz1, P. Pralavorio3, G. Raffelt2, J. Redondo10, A. Ringwald8, J. Schaffran8, A. Schmidt1, F. Steffen2, C. Strandhagen6, I. Usherov6, H. Wang1, and G. Wieching5 (MADMAX Collaboration)

  • *Present address: LLNL, Livermore, California, USA.
  • †Present address: TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 041001 – Published 23 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/c749-419q

Abstract

This Letter presents the first search for dark matter axions with mass in the ranges 76.56 to 76.82  μeV and 79.31 to 79.53  μeV using a prototype setup for the MAgnetized Disk and Mirror Axion eXperiment (MADMAX). The experimental setup employs a dielectric haloscope consisting of three sapphire disks and a mirror to resonantly enhance the axion-induced microwave signal within the magnetic dipole field provided by the 1.6 T Morpurgo magnet at CERN. Over 14.5 days of data collection, no axion signal was detected. A 95% CL upper limit on the axion-photon coupling strength down to |gaγ|∼2×10−11  GeV−1 is set in the targeted mass ranges, surpassing previous constraints, assuming a local axion dark matter density ρa of 0.3  GeV/cm3. This study marks the first axion dark matter search using a dielectric haloscope.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 041001– Published 23 July, 2025
  • Received 11 November 2024
  • Revised 25 February 2025
  • Accepted 20 May 2025
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