Development of a Tunable Axion Plasma Haloscopes

Long-established theories suggest that dark matter, in the form of axions, could account for the missing mass in the universe, however; the detection of dark matter has long eluded physics. As proposed by Lawson et al. [1], we are studying a new method of detecting axions by using a tunable plasma. The plasma haloscope is designed such that if the plasma frequency matches the axion mass, a weak microwave signal is generated. At high frequencies (\textgreater 10 GHz), this concept should permit the use of larger resonator volumes than can be practically achieved with traditional cavities. We are pursuing a series of engineering/proof-of-concept studies beginning with the development of a benchtop experiment of a three-dimensional array of planar wire frames. The combined structures lead to metamaterial behavior, which will enable the measuring of the plasmon-axion interaction. [1] Matthew Lawson, Alexander J. Millar, Matteo Pancaldi, Edoardo Vitagliano, and Frank Wilczek, "Tunable Axion Plasma Haloscopes", 29 August~ 2019. Physical Review Letters (Accepted).