Neutron Star Eclipses as Axion Laboratories
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866909028608638976 |
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| author | Brdar, Vedran Chattopadhyay, Dibya S. |
| author_facet | Brdar, Vedran Chattopadhyay, Dibya S. |
| contents | In light-shining-through-walls experiments, axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are searched for by exposing an optically thick barrier to a laser beam. In a magnetic field, photons could convert into ALPs in front of the barrier and reconvert behind it, giving rise to a signal that can occur only in the presence of such hidden particles. In this work, we utilize the light-shining-through-walls concept and apply it to astrophysical scales. Namely, we consider eclipsing binary systems, consisting of a neutron star, which is a bright source of X-rays, and a companion star with a much larger radius. Space observatories such as XMM-Newton and NuSTAR have performed extensive measurements of such systems, obtaining data on both out-of-eclipse photon rates and those during eclipses. The latter are typically $\mathscr{O}(10^2-10^3)$ times smaller, due to the fact that X-rays propagating along the line of sight from the neutron star to the X-ray observatory do not pass through the barrier that is the companion star. Using this attenuation, we derive a constraint on ALP-photon coupling of $g_{aγ} \leq 1.44 \times 10^{-10} \,\text{GeV}^{-1}$ (at $90\%$ C.L.) for the LMC X-4 eclipsing binary system, surpassing current bounds from light-shining-through-walls experiments. We also present future prospects that could realistically improve this limit by an order of magnitude in $g_{aγ}$, making it competitive with some of the strongest limits derived to date. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_02030 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Neutron Star Eclipses as Axion Laboratories Brdar, Vedran Chattopadhyay, Dibya S. High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena In light-shining-through-walls experiments, axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are searched for by exposing an optically thick barrier to a laser beam. In a magnetic field, photons could convert into ALPs in front of the barrier and reconvert behind it, giving rise to a signal that can occur only in the presence of such hidden particles. In this work, we utilize the light-shining-through-walls concept and apply it to astrophysical scales. Namely, we consider eclipsing binary systems, consisting of a neutron star, which is a bright source of X-rays, and a companion star with a much larger radius. Space observatories such as XMM-Newton and NuSTAR have performed extensive measurements of such systems, obtaining data on both out-of-eclipse photon rates and those during eclipses. The latter are typically $\mathscr{O}(10^2-10^3)$ times smaller, due to the fact that X-rays propagating along the line of sight from the neutron star to the X-ray observatory do not pass through the barrier that is the companion star. Using this attenuation, we derive a constraint on ALP-photon coupling of $g_{aγ} \leq 1.44 \times 10^{-10} \,\text{GeV}^{-1}$ (at $90\%$ C.L.) for the LMC X-4 eclipsing binary system, surpassing current bounds from light-shining-through-walls experiments. We also present future prospects that could realistically improve this limit by an order of magnitude in $g_{aγ}$, making it competitive with some of the strongest limits derived to date. |
| title | Neutron Star Eclipses as Axion Laboratories |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.02030 |