First search for axion dark matter with a Madmax prototype

B. Ary dos Santos Garcia, D. Bergermann, A. Caldwell, V. Dabhi, C. Diaconu, J. Diehl, G. Dvali, J. Egge, E. Garutti, S. Heyminck, F. Hubaut, A. Ivanov, J. Jochum, S. Knirck, M. Kramer, D. Kreikemeyer-Lorenzo, C. Krieger, C. Lee, D. Leppla-Weber, X. Li, A. Lindner, B. Majorovits, J. P. A. Maldonado, A. Martini, A. Miyazaki, E. Öz, P. Pralavorio, G. Raffelt, J. Redondo, A. Ringwald, J. Schaffran, A. Schmidt, F. Steffen, C. Strandhagen, I. Usherov, H. Wang, G. Wieching

Published 2024-09-18Version 1

This paper presents the first search for dark matter axions with mass in the ranges 76.56 to 76.82 $\mu$eV and 79.31 to 79.53 $\mu$eV using a prototype setup for the MAgnetized Disk and Mirror Axion eXperiment (MADMAX). The experimental setup employs a dielectric haloscope consisting of three sapphire disks and a mirror to resonantly enhance the axion-induced microwave signal within the magnetic dipole field provided by the 1.6 T Morpurgo magnet at CERN. Over 14.5 days of data collection, no axion signal was detected. A 95% CL upper limit on the axion-photon coupling strength down to $|g_{a\gamma}| \sim 2 \times 10^{-11} \mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ is set in the targeted mass ranges, surpassing previous constraints, assuming a local axion dark matter density $\rho_{a}$ of $0.3~\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{cm}^3$. This study marks the first axion dark matter search using a dielectric haloscope.