Doron Chelouche, Eduardo I. Guendelman
We show that, by studying the arrival times of radio pulses from
highly-magnetized transient beamed sources, it may be possible to detect light
pseudo-scalar particles, such as axions and axion-like particles, whose
existence could have considerable implications for the strong-CP problem of QCD
as well as the dark matter problem in cosmology. Specifically, such light
bosons may be detected with a much greater sensitivity, over a broad particle
mass range, than is currently achievable by terrestrial experiments, and using
indirect astrophysical considerations. The observable effect was discussed in
Chelouche & Guendelman (2009), and is akin to the Stern-Gerlach experiment: the
splitting of a photon beam naturally arises when finite coupling exists between
the electro-magnetic field and the axion field. The splitting angle of the
light beams linearly depends on the photon wavelength, the size of the
magnetized region, and the magnetic field gradient in the transverse direction
to the propagation direction of the photons. If radio emission in radio-loud
magnetars is beamed and originates in regions with strong magnetic field
gradients, then splitting of individual pulses may be detectable. We quantify
the effect for a simplified model for magnetars, and search for radio beam
splitting in the 2\,GHz radio light curves of the radio loud magnetar
XTE\,J1810-197.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.0151
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