Neutron stars as photon double-lenses: Constraining resonant conversion into ALPs

Autor(en)

Kyrylo Bondarenko, Alexey Boyarsky, Josef Pradler, Anastasia Sokolenko

Abstrakt

Axion-photon conversion is a prime mechanism to detect axion-like particles that share a coupling to the photon. We point out that in the vicinity of neutron stars with strong magnetic fields, magnetars, the effective photon mass receives comparable but opposite contributions from free electrons and the radiation field. This leads to an energy-dependent resonance condition for conversion that can be met for arbitrary light axions and leveraged when using systems with detected radio component. Using the magnetar SGR J1745-2900 as an exemplary source, we demonstrate that sensitivity to |gaγ|∼10−12GeV−1 or better can be gained for ma≲10−6eV, with the potential to improve current constraints on the axion-photon coupling by more than one order of magnitude over a broad mass range. With growing insights into the physical conditions of magnetospheres of magnetars, the method hosts the potential to become a serious competitor to future experiments such as ALPS-II and IAXO in the search for axion-like particles.

Organisation(en)

Teilchenphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Università degli Studi di Trieste, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Leiden University, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), University of Chicago

Journal

Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics

Band

846

Anzahl der Seiten

7

ISSN

0370-2693

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.08663

Publikationsdatum

11-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103012 Hochenergiephysik

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/neutron-stars-as-photon-doublelenses-constraining-resonant-conversion-into-alps(646f8e7f-9b9a-41b1-b577-83535696fd08).html