In situ enhanced detectability of axions' responses in a microwave cavity
Abstract
Microwave cavities in strong magnetic fields are among the most sensitive detectors for axion dark matter detection. Its sensitivity, however, is fundamentally limited by the second order nature of axion photon energy conversion, which yields an extremely weak signal. Here we propose a feasible approach to break this limitation, by pre-exciting the target cavity mode to generate a first order power response signal in situ. The resulting signal amplitude scales linearly with the axion-photon coupling parameter, which is in sharp contrast to the quadratic scaling of conventional schemes, and is detectable via standard quadrature balanced homodyne detection system, even though its phase remains stochastic. Numerical simulations demonstrate that this pre-excited seed field can effectively suppress thermal noise, and thus the detection sensitivity of the system can approach the lower quantum noise limit. Consequently, the sensitivities predicted by the KSVZ and DFSZ models could be surpassed. This proposal might offer a pathway to a major leap in axion dark matter searches, as it is within reach of current technology.
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BibTeX
@misc{gao2026situ,
title = {{In situ enhanced detectability of axions' responses in a microwave cavity}},
author = {Li Gao and Suirong He and Hao Zheng and Ni Chen and Xianing Feng and Qingquan Jiang and Jin Li and L. F. Wei},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.31717},
eprint = {2610.31717},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31717},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - In situ enhanced detectability of axions' responses in a microwave cavity
AU - Li Gao
AU - Suirong He
AU - Hao Zheng
AU - Ni Chen
AU - Xianing Feng
AU - Qingquan Jiang
AU - Jin Li
AU - L. F. Wei
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.31717
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31717
AB - Microwave cavities in strong magnetic fields are among the most sensitive detectors for axion dark matter detection. Its sensitivity, however, is fundamentally limited by the second order nature of axion photon energy conversion, which yields an extremely weak signal. Here we propose a feasible approach to break this limitation, by pre-exciting the target cavity mode to generate a first order power response signal in situ. The resulting signal amplitude scales linearly with the axion-photon coupling parameter, which is in sharp contrast to the quadratic scaling of conventional schemes, and is detectable via standard quadrature balanced homodyne detection system, even though its phase remains stochastic. Numerical simulations demonstrate that this pre-excited seed field can effectively suppress thermal noise, and thus the detection sensitivity of the system can approach the lower quantum noise limit. Consequently, the sensitivities predicted by the KSVZ and DFSZ models could be surpassed. This proposal might offer a pathway to a major leap in axion dark matter searches, as it is within reach of current technology.
ER -