2024/04/22 by Orion Ning, Ning, Orion, Benjamin R. Safdi +1 · 7 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.14476
openalex publication_date 2024/04/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We perform the most sensitive search to-date for the existence of ultralight axions using data from the NuSTAR telescope. We search for stellar axion production in the M82 starburst galaxy and the M87 central galaxy of the Virgo cluster and then the subsequent conversion into hard X-rays in the surrounding magnetic fields. We sum over the full stellar populations in these galaxies when computing the axion luminosity, and we account for the conversion of axions to photons by using magnetic field profiles in simulated IllustrisTNG analogue galaxies. We show that analyzing NuSTAR data towards these targets between roughly 30 to 70 keV shows no evidence for axions and leads to robust constraints on the axion-photon coupling at the level of |gaγγ| \lesssim 6.4 × 10-13 GeV-1 for ma \lesssim 10-10 eV at 95% confidence.