We report on the results from a search for dark matter axions with the HAYSTAC experiment using a microwave cavity detector at frequencies between 5.6 and 5.8 GHz. We exclude axion models with two ...photon coupling gaγγ≳2×10−14 GeV−1, a factor of 2.7 above the benchmark KSVZ model over the mass range 23.15<ma<24.0 μeV. This doubles the range reported in our previous paper. We achieve a near-quantum-limited sensitivity by operating at a temperature T<hν/2kB and incorporating a Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA), with improvements in the cooling of the cavity further reducing the experiment’s system noise temperature to only twice the standard quantum limit at its operational frequency, an order of magnitude better than any other dark matter microwave cavity experiment to date. This result concludes the first phase of the HAYSTAC program utilizing a conventional copper cavity and a single JPA.
The manipulation of quantum states of light
holds the potential to enhance searches for fundamental physics. Only recently has the maturation of quantum squeezing technology coincided with the ...emergence of fundamental physics searches that are limited by quantum uncertainty
. In particular, the quantum chromodynamics axion provides a possible solution to two of the greatest outstanding problems in fundamental physics: the strong-CP (charge-parity) problem of quantum chromodynamics
and the unknown nature of dark matter
. In dark matter axion searches, quantum uncertainty manifests as a fundamental noise source, limiting the measurement of the quadrature observables used for detection. Few dark matter searches have approached this limit
, and until now none has exceeded it. Here we use vacuum squeezing to circumvent the quantum limit in a search for dark matter. By preparing a microwave-frequency electromagnetic field in a squeezed state and near-noiselessly reading out only the squeezed quadrature
, we double the search rate for axions over a mass range favoured by some recent theoretical projections
. We find no evidence of dark matter within the axion rest energy windows of 16.96-17.12 and 17.14-17.28 microelectronvolts. Breaking through the quantum limit invites an era of fundamental physics searches in which noise reduction techniques yield unbounded benefit compared with the diminishing returns of approaching the quantum limit.
We report on the first results from a new microwave cavity search for dark matter axions with masses above 20 μeV. We exclude axion models with two-photon coupling g_{aγγ}≳2×10^{-14} GeV^{-1} over ...the range 23.55<m_{a}<24.0 μeV. These results represent two important achievements. First, we have reached cosmologically relevant sensitivity an order of magnitude higher in mass than any existing limits. Second, by incorporating a dilution refrigerator and Josephson parametric amplifier, we have demonstrated total noise approaching the standard quantum limit for the first time in an axion search.
The demonstration of a quantum link between microwave and optical frequencies would be an important step toward the realization of a quantum network of superconducting processors. A major impediment ...to quantum electro-optic transduction in all platforms explored to date is noise added by thermal occupation of modes involved in the transduction process, and it has proved difficult to realize low thermal occupancy concurrently with other desirable features like high duty cycle and high efficiency. In this work, we present an efficient and continuously operating electro-optomechanical transducer whose mechanical mode has been optically sideband cooled to its quantum ground state. The transducer achieves a maximum efficiency of 47% and minimum input-referred added noise of 3.2 photons in upconversion. Moreover, the thermal occupancy of the transducer’s microwave mode is minimally affected by continuous laser illumination with power more than 2 orders of magnitude greater than that required for optomechanical ground-state cooling.
We describe in detail the analysis procedure used to derive the first limits from the Haloscope at Yale Sensitive to Axion CDM (HAYSTAC), a microwave cavity search for cold dark matter (CDM) axions ...with masses above 20 μeV. We have introduced several significant innovations to the axion search analysis pioneered by the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX), including optimal filtering of the individual power spectra that constitute the axion search data set and a consistent maximum likelihood procedure for combining and rebinning these spectra. These innovations enable us to obtain the axion-photon coupling |gγ| excluded at any desired confidence level directly from the statistics of the combined data.
Many experiments that interrogate fundamental theories require detectors whose sensitivities are limited by the laws of quantum mechanics. In cavity-based searches for axionic dark matter, vacuum ...fluctuations in the two quadratures of the cavity electromagnetic field limit the sensitivity to an axion-induced field. In an apparatus designed to partially mimic existing axion detectors, we demonstrate experimentally that such quantum limits can be overcome through the use of squeezed states. By preparing a microwave cavity in a squeezed state and measuring just the squeezed quadrature, we enhance the spectral scan rate by a factor of2.12±0.08. This enhancement is in excellent quantitative agreement with a theoretical model accounting for both imperfect squeezing and measurement.
An optical network of superconducting quantum bits (qubits) is an appealing platform for quantum communication and distributed quantum computing, but developing a quantum-compatible link between the ...microwave and optical domains remains an outstanding challenge. Operating at T < 100 mK temperatures, as required for quantum electrical circuits, we demonstrate a mechanically mediated microwave–optical converter with 47% conversion efficiency, and use a classical feed-forward protocol to reduce added noise to 38 photons. The feed-forward protocol harnesses our discovery that noise emitted from the two converter output ports is strongly correlated because both outputs record thermal motion of the same mechanical mode. We also discuss a quantum feed-forward protocol that, given high system efficiencies, would allow quantum information to be transferred even when thermal phonons enter the mechanical element faster than the electro-optic conversion rate.
In experiments searching for axionic dark matter, the use of the standard threshold-based data analysis discards valuable information. We present a Bayesian analysis framework that builds on an ...existing processing protocol B. M. Brubaker, L. Zhong, S. K. Lamoreaux, K. W. Lehnert, and K. A. van Bibber, Phys. Rev. D 96, 123008 (2017) to extract more information from the data of coherent axion detectors such as operating haloscopes. The analysis avoids logical subtleties that accompany the standard analysis framework and enables greater experimental flexibility on future data runs. Performing this analysis on the existing data from the HAYSTAC experiment, we find improved constraints on the axion-photon coupling gγ while also identifying the most promising regions of parameter space within the 23.15 – 24.0 μ eV mass range. A comparison with the standard threshold analysis suggests a 36% improvement in scan rate from our analysis, demonstrating the utility of this framework for future axion haloscope analyses.
Entangling microwave-frequency superconducting quantum processors through optical light at ambient temperature would enable means of secure communication and distributed quantum information ...processing
. However, transducing quantum signals between these disparate regimes of the electro-magnetic spectrum remains an outstanding goal
, and interfacing superconducting qubits, which are constrained to operate at millikelvin temperatures, with electro-optic transducers presents considerable challenges owing to the deleterious effects of optical photons on superconductors
. Moreover, many remote entanglement protocols
require multiple qubit gates both preceding and following the upconversion of the quantum state, and thus an ideal transducer should impart minimal backaction
on the qubit. Here we demonstrate readout of a superconducting transmon qubit through a low-backaction electro-optomechanical transducer. The modular nature of the transducer and circuit quantum electrodynamics system used in this work enable complete isolation of the qubit from optical photons, and the backaction on the qubit from the transducer is less than that imparted by thermal radiation from the environment. Moderate improvements in the transducer bandwidth and the added noise will enable us to leverage the full suite of tools available in circuit quantum electrodynamics to demonstrate transduction of non-classical signals from a superconducting qubit to the optical domain.
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