Green Bank and Effelsberg Radio Telescope Searches for Axion Dark Matter Conversion in Neutron Star Magnetospheres
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Univ. of Tokyo (Japan); Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie, Bonn (Germany)
- ASTRON, Dwingeloo (Netherlands); Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Moscow (Russian Federation)
- Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States)
- Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Axion dark matter (DM) may convert to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the strong magnetic fields around neutron stars. The radio signature of such a process would be an ultranarrow spectral peak at a frequency determined by the mass of the axion particle. In this work, we analyze data we collected from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in the L band and the Effelsberg 100-m Telescope in the $$\textit{L}$$ band and $$\textit{S}$$ band from a number of sources expected to produce bright signals of axion-photon conversion, including the Galactic center of the Milky Way and the nearby isolated neutron stars RX J0720.4-3125 and RX J0806.4-4123. We find no evidence for axion DM and are able to set constraints on the existence of axion DM in the highly motivated mass range between ~ 5 and 11 μ eV with the strongest constraints to date on axions in the ~10–11 μ eV range.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); German Research Foundation (DFG); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); European Research Council (ERC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0019225; JP17H04836; JP18H04340; JP18H04578; 610058
- OSTI ID:
- 1852944
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 125, Issue 17; ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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