Speaker
Description
Axions provide an elegant solution to the strong CP problem and serve as a strong dark matter candidate. Recent cosmological simulations of post-inflationary scenarios indicate a preference for dark matter axions in the high-mass region above 10 GHz. To effectively probe this regime, plasma haloscopes utilize a tunable periodic metal wire array, a methodology driving the international ALPHA collaboration's upcoming searches.
Implementing a spiral packing method creates a quasi-crystalline structure that efficiently fills a cylindrical cavity. However, tuning such a complex geometry poses an engineering challenge. In this presentation, we introduce a novel resonator design tailored for the ALPHA experiment that tunes a spiral-packed wire array through a single, streamlined rotational motion. By dividing the wires on concentric rings, this mechanism achieves a tuning range of a few tens of percent while successfully maintaining the cavity's quality factor and preventing significant degradation of the form factor. We will discuss the conceptual design of this resonator and evaluate its effectiveness in optimizing the experiment's sensitivity.
| Main Contribution topic | Instrumentation for Dark Matter searches |
|---|---|
| Secondary contribution topic | Axion / Sterile |