Implementing Experimental Blinding on HAYSTAC Experiment

HAYSTAC is a quantum-enhanced dark matter experiment which uses a technique known as quantum squeezing to search for axions. This poster will discuss the implementation of a code-based blinding procedure known as "salting" on HAYSTAC. Blind analyses are critical for particle physics experiments to produce robust, trustworthy results and HAYSTAC has yet to implement one before now. Implementing a salting analysis requires the collaboration to fix all cuts and parameters in the analysis code before data processing begins. This prevents experimental bias and makes the HAYSTAC data analysis procedure more robust. This salting analysis uses a computer-generated axion lineshape to mimic a true axion signal. This mock signal or "salt" is then added to HAYSTAC's cavity profile data at a random, predetermined frequency unknown to the collaborators. The salted data is processed by the analysis code to ensure the mock signal is identified as a power excess in the data. In this poster, I will give an introduction to HAYSTAC, its quantum squeezing techniques, as well as the salting analysis process I've developed, it's results, and my plans for its implementation on HAYSTAC's next data-acquisition phase.