A New Concept for Axion Dark Matter Detection

• Raffaele Tito Dagnolo (Univ. of California San Diego (US))

I discuss an approach to search for axion dark matter with a specially designed superconducting radio frequency cavity. Our idea exploits axion-induced transitions between nearly degenerate resonant modes. Compared to traditional detection strategies this allows for parametrically enhanced signal power for axions lighter than a GHz (~micro-eV). The projected sensitivity covers unexplored parameter space for QCD axion dark matter for axion masses between a GHz and 10 MHz. It is also sensitive to about eight orders of magnitude in axion-like dark matter coupling to photons for axion masses between GHz and Hz.