Search for Axion-Like Particles in High-Magnetic-Field Pulsars with NICER

2025/11/05 by Liu, Yen-Jhen, Yang, Yi
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.03316

openalex publication_date 2025/11/05 · openalex created_date 2025/11/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) can couple to photons in strong magnetic fields, producing characteristic fluctuations in X-ray spectra. Using data from NASA's Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), we analyzed three pulsars: PSR J2229+6114, PSR J1849-0001, and PSR B0531+21, to search for such features. Each spectrum was modeled with a sliding-window power-law fitting method to identify local deviations from the smooth continuum. From these analyses, we derived constraints on the axion-photon coupling constant g_aγγ assuming dipole and quadrupole magnetic field distributions. We obtain upper limits in the range 10^-10--10^-13 GeV^-1 for ALP masses in the 0.8--10~keV region.

Citations

• An Axion Pulsarscope
• First Constraints on the Photon Coupling of Axion-like Particles from Multimessenger Studies of the Neutron Star Merger GW170817
• New experimental approaches in the search for axion-like particles

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