Arts & Sciences Events
[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium
Danielle H. Speller, Yale University, Title of Talk: Invisible Worlds: A Search For Axion Dark Matter with the HAYSTAC Experiment
Abstract: The nature of dark matter is one of the most elusive puzzles in modern physics. With the absence of the detection of traditional candidates like the WIMP, there has been a strong resurgence of interest in low mass and very light candidates, such as the axion. The Haloscope At Yale Sensitive To Axion CDM (HAYSTAC) is a tunable microwave cavity experiment sensitive to significant regions of the axion parameter space interesting to both particle physics and cosmology. In 2017, the HAYSTAC experiment excluded axion-photon couplings above ~2x10-14 GeV-1 for axion masses between 23.15 < ma < 24.0 ????eV, a mass range previously unexplored by existing haloscope experiments. HAYSTAC is now entering its next stage of operation, incorporating a new squeezed-state receiver system and significant upgrades to the cryogenics system. We discuss our recent results, upgrades, current status, and commissioning for Phase II.