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Register a new userScanning the landscape of axion dark matter detectors: applying gradient descent to experimental design
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J. I. McDonald
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The hunt for dark matter remains one of the principal objectives of modern physics and cosmology. Searches for dark matter in the form of axions are proposed or underway across a range of experimental collaborations. As we look to the next generation of detectors, a natural question to ask is whether there are new experimental designs waiting to be discovered and how we might find them. Here we take a new approach to the experimental design procedure by using gradient descent techniques to search for optimal detector designs. We provide a proof of principle for this technique by searching 1D detectors varying the bulk properties of the detector until the optimal detector design is obtained. Remarkably, we find the detector is capable of out-performing a human designed experiment on which the search was initiated. This opens the door to further gradient descent searches of more complex 2D and 3D designs across a wider variety of materials and boundary geometries of the detector. There is also an opportunity to use more sophisticated gradient descent algorithms to complete a more exhaustive scan of the landscape of designs.
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If there are a plethora of axions in nature, they may have a complicated potential and create an axion landscape. We study a possibility that one of the axions is so light that it is cosmologically stable, explaining the observed dark matter density. In particular we focus on a case in which two (or more) shift-symmetry breaking terms conspire to make the axion sufficiently light at the potential minimum. In this case the axion has a flat-bottomed potential. In contrast to the case in which a single cosine term dominates the potential, the axion abundance as well as its isocurvature perturbations are significantly suppressed. This allows an axion with a rather large mass to serve as dark matter without fine-tuning of the initial misalignment, and further makes higher-scale inflation to be consistent with the scenario.
The axion, originated from the Peccei-Quinn mechanism proposed to solve the strong-CP problem, is a well motivated and popular dark matter candidate. Experimental searches for this hypothetical particle are starting to reach theoretically interesting sensitivity levels. However, only a small fraction of the allowed parameter space has been explored so far, mostly in the $mu$eV (GHz) region, relying on large volume solenoid magnetic fields and microwave resonators with signals read out by quantum noise limited amplifiers. There have been intensive experimental efforts to widen the search range by devising various techniques as well as to enhance sensitivities by implementing advanced technologies. The developments and improvements in these orthogonal approaches will enable us to explore most of the parameter space of the axion and axion-like particles within the next five to ten years. We review the experimental aspects of axion physics and discuss the past, present and future of the individual search programs.
In an effort to extend the usefulness of microwave cavity detectors to higher axion masses, above ~8 $mu$eV (~2 GHz), a numerical trade study of cavities was conducted to investigate the merit of using variable periodic post arrays and regulating vane designs for higher-frequency searches. The results show that both designs could be used to develop resonant cavities for high-mass axion searches. Multiple configurations of both methods obtained the scanning sensitivity equivalent to approximately 4 coherently coupled cavities with a single tuning rod.
Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) ultra low noise haloscope technology has enabled the successful completion of two science runs (1A and 1B) that looked for dark matter axions in the $2.66$ to $3.1$ $mu$eV mass range with Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnisky (DFSZ) sensitivity Ref. [1,2]. Therefore, it is the most sensitive axion search experiment to date in this mass range. We discuss the technological advances made in the last several years to achieve this sensitivity, which includes the implementation of components, such as state-of-the-art quantum limited amplifiers and a dilution refrigerator. Furthermore, we demonstrate the use of a frequency tunable Microstrip Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) Amplifier (MSA), in Run 1A, and a Josephson Parametric Amplifier (JPA), in Run 1B, along with novel analysis tools that characterize the system noise temperature.
We discuss the possibility to predict the QCD axion mass in the context of grand unified theories. We investigate the implementation of the DFSZ mechanism in the context of renormalizable SU(5) theories. In the simplest theory, the axion mass can be predicted with good precision in the range $m_a = (2-16)$ neV, and there is a strong correlation between the predictions for the axion mass and proton decay rates. In this context, we predict an upper bound for the proton decay channels with antineutrinos, $tau(pto K^+ bar{ u}) lesssim 4 times 10^{37} text{ yr}$ and $tau(p to pi^+ bar{ u}) lesssim 2 times 10^{36}text{ yr}$. This theory can be considered as the minimal realistic grand unified theory with the DFSZ mechanism and it can be fully tested by proton decay and axion experiments.
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