Experimental measurement of the quality factor of a Fabry-P\'erot open-cavity axion haloscope

The axion is a hypothetical boson arising from the most natural solution to the problem of charge and parity symmetry in the strong nuclear force. Moreover, this pseudoscalar emerges as a dark matter candidate in a parameter space extending several decades in mass. The Dark-photons \& Axion-Like particles Interferometer (DALI) is a proposal to search for axion dark matter in a range that remains under-examined. Currently in a design and prototyping phase, this haloscope is a multilayer Fabry-P\'erot interferometer. A proof-of-principle experiment is performed to observe the resonance in a prototype. The test unveils a quality factor per open cavity of a few hundred over a bandwidth of the order of dozens of megahertz. The result elucidates a physics potential to find the, so far elusive, axion, in a sector which can simultaneously solve the symmetry problem in the strong interaction and the enigma of dark matter.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

THERMAP: a mid-infrared spectro-imager for space missions to small bodies in the inner solar system

We present THERMAP, a mid-infrared (8-16 μm) spectro-imager for space missions to small bodies in the inner solar system, developed in the framework of the MarcoPolo-R asteroid sample return mission. THERMAP is very well suited to characterize the surface thermal environment of a NEO and to map its surface composition. The instrument has two channels, one for imaging and one for spectroscopy: it is both a thermal camera with full 2D imaging capabilities and a slit spectrometer. THERMAP takes advantage of the recent technological developments of uncooled microbolometers detectors, sensitive in the mid-infrared spectral range. THERMAP can acquire thermal images (8-18 μm) of the surface and perform absolute temperature measurements with a precision better than 3.5 K above 200 K. THERMAP can acquire mid-infrared spectra (8-16 μm) of the surface with a spectral resolution Δλ of 0.3 μm. For surface temperatures above 350 K, spectra have a signal-to-noise ratio >60 in the spectral range 9-13 μm where most emission features occur

A Forecast of the Sensitivity of the DALI Experiment to Galactic Axion Dark Matter

The axion is a long-postulated boson that can simultaneously solve two fundamental problems of modern physics: the charge–parity symmetry problem in the strong interaction and the enigma of dark matter. In this work, we estimate, by means of Monte Carlo simulations, the sensitivity of the Dark-photons & Axion-Like particles Interferometer (DALI), a new-generation Fabry–Pérot haloscope proposed to probe axion dark matter in the 25–250 μeV band