Dark Photon Searches with SRF Cavities

Dark matter makes up 85% of the matter in the universe and 27% of its energy density, but we don't know what comprises dark matter. Dark photons with small kinetic mixing angles and masses >10 micro-eV make compelling candidates for dark matter since they would be stable on cosmological timescales and can be produced by quantum fluctuations during inflation. SRF cavities are particularly well-suited for exploring this parameter space with unprecedented sensitivity. This presentation will report the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) Center's efforts in developing an experiment that will deploy an SRF cavity and sub-quantum-limited detection to search for dark photon dark matter around 6 GHz.