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arXiv · 2608.10292

Design of ALPHA Phase I: A Plasma Haloscope for 10--20 GHz Post-Inflation Axions

ALPHA Collaboration·Xiran Bai·Rustam Balafendiev·Sean E. Barrett·Eunice Beato·Pavel Belov·Charles D. Brown·Eduardo A. Castro Muñoz·Jan Conrad·Marcel Demarteau·Alex Droster·Joseph Dubois·Jonathan Echevers·Ali Elhadi·Jim Enriquez·Maryam Haytham Esmat·Andrea Gallo Rosso·Eleanor Graham·Chloe Greenstein·Jon E. Gudmundsson·Karsten M. Heeger·Ishaan Iyer·Heather Jackson·Junu Jeong·Michael J. Jewell·Tyler Johnson·Shriram Jois·Gagandeep Kaur·Claire Laffan·K. W. Lehnert·Samantha M. Lewis·Jacob Lindahl·Reina H. Maruyama·Philip Mauskopf·Andrew M. Meyer·Alexander J. Millar·Dylan R. Miller·Hiranya V. Peiris·Jianyang Qi·Elizabeth P. Ruddy·Sharada Sahoo·Denis Sakhno·Michael Sekatchev·Max Silva-Feaver·Shenyang Shi·Aarav M. Sindhwad·Gaganpreet Singh·Sukhman Singh·Danielle H. Speller·Dajie Sun·Noshin Tabassum·Karl van Bibber·Yongqi Wang·Frank Wilczek·Mackenzie Wooten·Sabrina Zacarias
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Abstract

The axion is a well-motivated hypothetical particle capable of resolving both the strong CP problem and the dark matter mystery, with recent post-inflationary cosmological simulations favoring masses above 40 {\mu}eV. Plasma haloscopes serve as a promising experimental approach to reach theoretically preferred sensitivities in this mass range. ALPHA, hosted at Yale Wright Laboratory, is an international collaboration developing plasma haloscopes to search for QCD dark matter axions. In this letter we present the detailed design and sensitivity projection for the first phase of the ALPHA experiment, which will search the mass range from 10 GHz to 20 GHz (~40 {\mu}eV to 80 {\mu}eV). This search will make use of wire-array plasma resonators to decouple the physical size from the resonant frequency, a limitation typically faced by traditional microwave cavities, allowing broadband sensitivity approaching KSVZ coupling strengths.

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ALPHA Collaboration, Xiran Bai, Rustam Balafendiev, Sean E. Barrett, Eunice Beato, Pavel Belov, Charles D. Brown, Eduardo A. Castro Muñoz, Jan Conrad, Marcel Demarteau, Alex Droster, Joseph Dubois, Jonathan Echevers, Ali Elhadi, Jim Enriquez, Maryam Haytham Esmat, Andrea Gallo Rosso, Eleanor Graham, Chloe Greenstein, Jon E. Gudmundsson, Karsten M. Heeger, Ishaan Iyer, Heather Jackson, Junu Jeong, Michael J. Jewell, Tyler Johnson, Shriram Jois, Gagandeep Kaur, Claire Laffan, K. W. Lehnert, Samantha M. Lewis, Jacob Lindahl, Reina H. Maruyama, Philip Mauskopf, Andrew M. Meyer, Alexander J. Millar, Dylan R. Miller, Hiranya V. Peiris, Jianyang Qi, Elizabeth P. Ruddy, Sharada Sahoo, Denis Sakhno, Michael Sekatchev, Max Silva-Feaver, Shenyang Shi, Aarav M. Sindhwad, Gaganpreet Singh, Sukhman Singh, Danielle H. Speller, Dajie Sun, Noshin Tabassum, Karl van Bibber, Yongqi Wang, Frank Wilczek, Mackenzie Wooten, Sabrina Zacarias. 2026-08-10. Design of ALPHA Phase I: A Plasma Haloscope for 10--20 GHz Post-Inflation Axions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.10292

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