Follow-up Search for a Tentative Dark Photon Signal Near 19.5 $\mu$eV using ORGAN-Q infrastructure

Abstract

A recent independent dark photon (DP) focused reanalysis of existing data from the TASEH axion haloscope experiment reported a tentative DP dark matter signal with local significance $\sim 4.7\sigma$ at $f_X \simeq$ 4.71 GHz, corresponding to $m_X \simeq 19.5~\mu$eV and kinetic mixing $\epsilon \sim 6.5\times 10^{-15}$. Motivated by this report, we performed a dedicated, narrowband follow-up experiment to confirm or refute the signal with a cryogenic microwave cavity operated \emph{without} a magnetic field, leveraging the ORGAN-Q dilution refrigeration and receiver chain. Scanning a window centered on the reported frequency over a live time of $T_{int}\sim 13$ days, we find no excess consistent with a dark photon signal as reported, and set $95\%$ C.L. exclusion on $\epsilon$ in a narrow mass range around $\sim 19.5~\mu$eV, excluding a signal of the strength and frequency reported to 99.92$\%$ confidence. We discuss the experiment and present the exclusion limits.