8–13 Nov 2026
University of Western Australia
Australia/Perth timezone

ADMX SIDECAR and SIDETRAC: Novel Technologies for High-Frequency Axion Haloscope Searches

Not scheduled
20m
University of Western Australia

University of Western Australia

Poster Presentation

Speaker

Thomas Braine

Description

Axions are a well-motivated wave-like dark matter candidate that additionally solves the strong CP problem, detectable via cavity haloscopes. However, haloscope sensitivity degrades significantly at higher axion masses due to decreasing cavity volume, increasing thermal noise, and degradation of cavity quality factor. The ADMX collaboration is actively developing and deploying novel technologies across two complementary experimental ‘Side’ platforms to address these challenges.
ADMX Sidecar is a high-frequency haloscope operating within the ADMX main experiment's cryostat and magnetic field region, serving as a testbed for emerging axion detection technologies in a real search context. Sidecar has excluded axion-like particles (ALPs) across multiple mass regions spanning 17–30 µeV, employing hardware such as piezoelectric motors, Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPAs), and most recently a Nb₃Sn superconductor-coated tuning rod. Recent results of the characterization of this hybrid SRF cavity within field are discussed.
ADMX-SIDETRAC is a new complementary R&D multi-cavity haloscope sited at PNNL, consisting of two cavities operating in a 14T magnet targeting axions near 6 GHz. It operates within a BlueFors LD400 fridge, enabling a quicker turnover than the SIDECAR system. SIDETRAC jointly explores several emerging technologies to mitigate the challenges of high-frequency searches, including AI/ML controls to simplify and optimize multi-cavity operations, magnetic-field-tolerant Kinetic Inductance Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers (KITWPAs) enabling amplification with minimal magnetic shielding, and qubit photon-counting readout to evade the standard quantum noise limit. Ongoing developments of both platforms are discussed.

Primary Abstract Topic Experiment: Axions and Wave-Like-DM

Authors

Christian Boutan (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) Thomas Braine

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.