Dortmund 2021 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 70: Searches for Dark Matter II

T 70.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 17:00–17:15, Tt

Optimizing Disk Positions for MADMAX — •Jacob Egge for the MADMAX collaboration — Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Deutschland

The MAgnetized Disk and Mirror Axion eXperiment is an upcoming dark matter experiment which will search for axions, a promising dark matter candidate. It relies on the conversion of axions from the galactic dark matter halo to detectable photons in a strong magnetic field. Dielectric disks placed inside the magnetic field each emit converted photons and boost the tenuous axion signal by coherent interference and resonances between disks. The spacing of disks determines this frequency-dependent boost and finding the optimal configuration for a given frequency range is a non-trivial task.

The position and orientation of up to 80 disks in the final full-scale experiment and 20 disks in the prototype experiment must be considered. As with any high-dimensional optimization, a brute force approach quickly becomes unpractical. This talk outlines a method that greatly reduces dimensionality and complexity of the problem by exploiting correlations between disk positions. This not only significantly speeds up optimization but also yields insights into the electromagnetic behavior of the disks.

Deviations from perfectly flat dielectric disks deteriorate the boost of the axion signal. First results on compensation by re-optimizing disk positions and subsequent relaxation of disk flatness requirements are presented as well.