<p>We report on a search for axion dark matter in the frequency range near 5.9 GHz, conducted using the haloscope technique. The experiment employed an 8-cell microwave resonator designed to extend the accessible frequency range by a multifold factor relative to conventional single-cell configurations, while maintaining a large detection volume. To enhance sensitivity, a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier operating near the quantum noise limit was utilized, together with a sideband-summing method that coherently combines mirrored spectral components generated by the Josephson parametric amplifier. Data were acquired over the frequency range 5.83–5.94 GHz. With no statistically significant excess observed, we exclude axion-photon couplings <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>g</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>a</mi><mi>γ</mi><mi>γ</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></math> down to <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mn>1.2</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>14</mn></mrow></msup><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mrow><msup><mrow><mi>GeV</mi></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></mrow></math> at a 90% confidence level. The achieved sensitivity approaches the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov benchmark prediction, setting the most stringent limits to date in this range.</p>

South Korea

Saebyeok Ahn

Çağlar Kutlu

Soohyung Lee

SungWoo Youn

Sergey V. Uchaikin

Sungjae Bae

Sweden

Junu Jeong

Japan

Arjan F. van Loo

Yasunobu Nakamura

Seongjeong Oh

Jihn E. Kim

Yannis K. Semertzidis

Probing Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov Axion Dark Matter near 5.9 GHz Using an 8-Cell Cavity Haloscope

<p>Axions, originally proposed to resolve the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>P</mi></mrow></math> problem in the strong interaction, remain a leading dark matter candidate. While cavity haloscopes offer the most sensitive technique for detecting axions, searches have largely been limited to masses below <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mn>10</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>μeV</mi></mrow></math>. We report a sensitive search for axion dark matter with masses around <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><mn>21</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>μeV</mi></mrow></math>, utilizing the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>TM</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>020</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math> mode of a cylindrical cavity equipped with an innovative tuning mechanism. Our search achieved a sensitivity of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mn>1.7</mn><mo>×</mo></math> the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov benchmark over a 100-MHz range, representing a significant advance in this mass range. These results demonstrate that higher-order modes provide a viable strategy for extending haloscope searches into previously unexplored higher-mass regions.</p>

Germany

Younggeun Kim

Jinsu Kim

Seonjeong Oh

Taehyeon Seong

Sergey Uchaikin

Axion Dark Matter Search with Sensitivity near the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov Benchmark Using the <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>TM</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>020</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math> Mode

It has been known for some time that the cosmological bound on the invisible axion scale can be avoided by an early phase of strong QCD. While most approaches rely on theories where the strong coupling constant is determined through the expectation value of some scalar field, we show that this mechanism can also be implemented into the benchmark Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov and Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky models when the early phase of strong QCD emerges by the modification of the running coupling during inflation. For both models the physics that are responsible for making QCD strong do not displace the axions minimum by too much, so that the efficiency of the relaxation is controlled by parameters of the theory and the number of inflationary <math><mi>e</mi></math>-folds. In particular, we consider the case of very efficient relaxation where the axion abundance is dominated by inflationary quantum and postinflationary thermal fluctuations. Within this situation we identify the parameter space compatible with all cosmological constrains and derive conditions on the reheating temperature and the QCD scale during inflation that result in the axion making up all the dark matter. Because of duality below the Peccei-Quinn scale and a minor influence of the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov and Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky fields on the running, our findings also apply to a minimal two-form implementation of the axion.

Emmanouil Koutsangelas

Removing the cosmological bound on the axion scale in the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov and Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky models

The Higgs boson discovery stirred interest in next-to-minimal supersymmetric models, due to the apparent fine-tuning required to accommodate it in minimal theories. To assess their naturalness, we compare fine-tuning in a ℤ 3 conserving semi-constrained Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) to the constrained MSSM (CMSSM). We contrast popular fine-tuning measures with naturalness priors, which automatically appear in statistical measures of the plausibility that a given model reproduces the weak scale. Our comparison shows that naturalness priors provide valuable insight into the hierarchy problem and rigorously ground naturalness in Bayesian statistics. For the CMSSM and semi-constrained NMSSM we demonstrate qualitative agreement between naturalness priors and popular fine tuning measures. Thus, we give a clear plausibility argument that favours relatively light superpartners.

Australia

Peter Athron

Csaba Balazs

Benjamin Farmer

Andrew Fowlie

Czechia

Dylan Harries

Doyoun Kim

Bayesian analysis and naturalness of (Next-to-)Minimal Supersymmetric Models

We analyze the prospects of the detection of an O 1 $$ \mathcal{O}(1) $$ GeV neutralino dark matter, χ ˜ 1 0 $$ {\tilde{\chi}}_1^0 $$ , in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at the 14 TeV LHC. We perform dedicated scans of the relevant parameter space of the model and find a large number of points where the thermal relic abundance due to such a dark matter is consistent with the PLANCK measurement. We note that this dark matter is highly singlino-dominated and is always accompanied by a pseudoscalar, A 1 , with a mass around twice its own, which is responsible for its resonant annihilation. For two benchmark points from our scan, we then carry out a detector-level signal-to-background analysis of the pair production of a heavier higgsino neutralino and a chargino. The higgsino thus produced decays into the dark matter and either the Z boson or the A 1 . For the Z -associated production of χ ˜ 1 0 $$ {\tilde{\chi}}_1^0 $$ , we investigate the scope of the trilepton search channel. For the A 1 -associated production mode, in order to identify the two collimated muons coming from the decay of the A 1 , we employ an unconventional method, of clustering them together into one jet-like object. Using this method, for certain parameter space configurations, a much larger sensitivity can be obtained at the 14 TeV LHC for the A 1 χ ˜ 1 0 $$ {A}_1\;{\tilde{\chi}}_1^0 $$ channel compared to the Z χ ˜ 1 0 $$ Z{\tilde{\chi}}_1^0 $$ channel, with an integrated luminosity of 300 fb −1 .

Chengcheng Han

Shoaib Munir

Myeonghun Park

O 1 $$ \mathcal{O}(1) $$ GeV dark matter in SUSY and a very light pseudoscalar at the LHC

The presence of two light higgsinos nearly degenerate in mass is one of the important characteristics of supersymmetric models meeting the naturalness criteria. Probing such higgsinos at the LHC is very challenging, in particular when the mass-splitting between them is less than 5 GeV. In this study, we analyze such a degenerate higgsino scenario by exploiting the high collinearity between the two muons which originate from the decay of the heavier higgsino into the lighter one and which are accompanied by a high- p T QCD jet. Using our method, we can achieve a statistical significance ∼ 2 . 9 σ as well as S/B ∼ 17% with an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb −1 at the 14 TeV LHC, for the pair production of higgsinos with masses 124 GeV and 120 GeV. A good sensitivity can be achieved even for a smaller mass-splitting when the higgsinos are lighter.

Accessing the core of naturalness, nearly degenerate higgsinos, at the LHC