Cornering the Post-inflationary Axion Dark Matter

by Prof. Chao-Lin Kuo (Stanford University)

Tuesday 23 Jul 2024, 16:15 → 18:15 Europe/Berlin

 Axion is a compelling candidate for dark matter that makes up more than 80% of the mass in the university. After a general introduction, I will discuss a synergistic three-pronged approach to constrain the post-inflationary axion model, which predicts the axion mass in the 10’s – 100’s of ueV.  I will then focus on the ADMX-VERA (Volume Enhanced Resonant Axion) Experiment which aims to evade the steep sensitivity degradation toward high frequency using novel resonator geometries.  I will describe the basic concept, experimental demonstrations, and our plans for the next few years.  The concepts being study inherit many appealing properties from the conventional coaxial cavity: high quality factor, compatibility with a solenoid magnet, ease of tuning, and coupling. Combined with quantum-limited amplifiers, ADMX-VERA is a promising approach to reach the DFSZ benchmark over meaningful bandwidths in the post-inflationary regime.