Dielectric Haloscopes: A New Way to Detect Axion Dark Matter
A. Caldwell, Gia Dvali, Béla Majorovits, Alexander J. Millar, Georg G. Raffelt, Javier Redondo, O. Reimann, F. Simon, Frank Daniel Steffen, MADMAX Working Group
Abstract
We propose a new strategy to search for dark matter axions in the mass range of 40-400 μeV by introducing dielectric haloscopes, which consist of dielectric disks placed in a magnetic field. The changing dielectric media cause discontinuities in the axion-induced electric field, leading to the generation of propagating electromagnetic waves to satisfy the continuity requirements at the interfaces. Large-area disks with adjustable distances boost the microwave signal (10-100 GHz) to an observable level and allow one to scan over a broad axion mass range. A sensitivity to QCD axion models is conceivable with 80 disks of 1 m^{2} area contained in a 10 T field.