Speaker
Description
Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) provide well-motivated solutions to the strong CP problem and constitute compelling dark matter candidates. In this poster, I present complementary strategies for probing axions across a broad mass range using both laboratory-based direct detection and collider phenomenology.
On the direct detection side, I present results from a dielectric haloscope designed to probe QCD axions in the infrared–optical regime via coherent axion–photon conversion in multilayer stacks of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride disks. The completed experimental setup employs single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) for single-photon readout, and we have recently performed the first full run with the integrated haloscope system. I will discuss the experimental configuration, data acquisition, and the ongoing analysis of the first dataset to evaluate sensitivity within the well-motivated QCD axion parameter space. I also explore the potential of such haloscope configurations to probe ultra-high-frequency gravitational waves.
Complementing this approach, I investigate the projected sensitivity of the future FCC-ee collider to ALPs through the process $e^+ e^- \to \gamma a$, followed by $a \to \mu^+ \mu-$. Using Monte Carlo simulations together with machine learning–based analysis techniques, I evaluate expected constraints on ALP couplings and masses at the Z pole with high integrated luminosity. Together, these studies highlight the complementarity between direct detection experiments and collider searches in advancing the exploration of axion physics.