Sequential hypothesis testing for axion haloscopes

The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel likelihood-based inferential framework for axion haloscopes that is valid under the commonly applied "rescanning"protocol. The proposed method enjoys short data acquisition times and simple tuning of the detector configuration. Local statistical significance and power are computed analytically, avoiding the need for burdensome simulations. Adequate corrections for the look-elsewhere effect are also discussed. The performance of our inferential strategy is compared with that of a simple method that exploits the geometric probability of rescan. Finally, we exemplify the method with an application to a HAYSTAC-type axion haloscope.