A Dark Photon Dark Matter Search with a Widely-Tunable SRF Cavity

Conference · Mon Nov 03 04:00:00 EST 2025 · No journal information

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/3000845· OSTI ID:3000845

Cervantes, Raphael ^[1]; Giaccone, Bianca ^[1]; Melnychuk, Oleksandr ^[1]; Kazakov, Sergey ^[1]; Nekrashevich, Ivan ^[1]; Pronitchev, Oleg V. ^[1]; Suliman, Soka ^[1]; Molenaar, Daniel ^[1]; Castañeda, Fabio ^[1]; Berlin, Asher ^[1]; Posen, Sam ^[1]; Harnik, Roni ^[1]; Contreras-Martinez, Crispin ^[1]; Pischalnikov, Yuriy ^[1]; Pilipenko, Roman ^[1]; Grassellino, Anna ^[1]

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1. Fermilab

The SERAPH (SupERconducting Axion and Paraphoton Haloscope) experiment is a family of superconducting haloscopes being developed by the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) Center to search for wavelike dark matter. This presentation will focus on preliminary results from our dark photon dark matter search using a widely-tunable SRF cavity operating between 4-7 GHz, nicknamed the “plunger cavity.” I will present the cavity design and characterization, analyze the impact of microphonics on system performance and haloscope sensitivity, and describe our tuning methodology for this Q~10^8 cavity. The presentation will cover our haloscope analysis approach and discuss sensitivity limits achieved within this frequency range. Finally, I will outline lessons learned from this first search, implications for future axion searches, and proposed improvements for subsequent SERAPH experiments.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy
• DOE Contract Number: 89243024CSC000002
• OSTI ID: 3000845
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-SLIDES-25-0273-SQMS; oai:inspirehep.net:3075529
• Conference Information: Journal Name: No journal information
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English