Nov 18 – 22, 2024
America/New_York timezone

Receiver Noise In Axion Haloscopes

Nov 19, 2024, 2:15 PM
15m
262C (Student Union)

262C

Student Union

Parallel Presentation RDC8: Quantum and Superconducting Sensors RDC 08 - Quantum and Superconducting Sensors Parallel Session

Speaker

Dan Zhang (University of Washington)

Description

Axions are a well-motivated dark matter candidate for solving the strong CP problem at the same time. Axion haloscope makes use of the conversion of axions to photons in a large magnetic field. To increase signal strength, many haloscopes make use of resonant enhancement and high gain amplifiers, while also taking measures to keep receiver noise as low as possible such as the use of dilution refrigerators and ultra low-noise electronics. We build the noise model based on the sources of noise found within a typical axion haloscope receiver chain, using the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) as a case study. We present examples of different noise calibration measurements at 1280~MHz using a hot load with ADMX during its most recent data taking run. The consistency between the measurements and the detailed model provide suggestions for future improvements within ADMX and other axion haloscopes to reach a lower noise temperature and to simplify the receiver chain design.

Primary authors

Dan Zhang (University of Washington) Ms Michaela Guzzetti (University of Washington)

Presentation materials