X-Ray Signatures of Axion Conversion in Magnetic White Dwarf Stars
Abstract
White dwarf (WD) stars may radiate keV-energy axions produced in their stellar cores. This has been extensively studied as an extra channel by which WDs may cool, with some analyses even suggesting that axions can help explain the observed WD luminosity function. We show that the radiated axions may convert into X-rays in the strong magnetic fields surrounding the WDs, leading to observable X-ray signatures. We use Suzaku observations of the WD RE J0317-853 to set the strongest constraints to-date on the combination of the axion-electron (gaee) times axion-photon (gaγγ) couplings, and we show that dedicated observations of magnetic WDs by telescopes such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR could increase the sensitivity to |gaeegaγγ| by over an order of magnitude, allowing for a definitive test of the axion-like-particle explanation of the stellar cooling anomalies.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1547970
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1610976; OSTI ID: 1646654
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0019225; SC0007859
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Volume: 123 Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Physics; Particle astrophysics; Particle mixing & oscillations; Particle production; X-ray astronomy; Axions; Stars
Citation Formats
Dessert, Christopher, Long, Andrew J., and Safdi, Benjamin R. X-Ray Signatures of Axion Conversion in Magnetic White Dwarf Stars. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.061104.
Dessert, Christopher, Long, Andrew J., & Safdi, Benjamin R. X-Ray Signatures of Axion Conversion in Magnetic White Dwarf Stars. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.061104
Dessert, Christopher, Long, Andrew J., and Safdi, Benjamin R. Wed .
"X-Ray Signatures of Axion Conversion in Magnetic White Dwarf Stars". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.061104.
@article{osti_1547970,
title = {X-Ray Signatures of Axion Conversion in Magnetic White Dwarf Stars},
author = {Dessert, Christopher and Long, Andrew J. and Safdi, Benjamin R.},
abstractNote = {White dwarf (WD) stars may radiate keV-energy axions produced in their stellar cores. This has been extensively studied as an extra channel by which WDs may cool, with some analyses even suggesting that axions can help explain the observed WD luminosity function. We show that the radiated axions may convert into X-rays in the strong magnetic fields surrounding the WDs, leading to observable X-ray signatures. We use Suzaku observations of the WD RE J0317-853 to set the strongest constraints to-date on the combination of the axion-electron (gaee) times axion-photon (gaγγ) couplings, and we show that dedicated observations of magnetic WDs by telescopes such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR could increase the sensitivity to |gaeegaγγ| by over an order of magnitude, allowing for a definitive test of the axion-like-particle explanation of the stellar cooling anomalies.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.061104},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 6,
volume = 123,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {8}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.061104
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