Probing axionlike particles with multimessenger observations of neutron star mergers

Lecce, Francesca ; Lella, Alessandro ; Lucente, Giuseppe ; Vijayan, Vimal ; Bauswein, Andreas ; Giannotti, Maurizio (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Mirizzi, Alessandro

Resumen: AAxion-like particles (ALPs) can be copiously produced in binary neutron star (BNS) mergers through nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung if the ALP-nucleon couplings ⁢ are sizable. The ALP-photon coupling ⁢ may trigger conversions of ultralight ALPs into photons in the magnetic fields of the merger remnant and of the Milky Way. This effect would lead to a potentially observable short gamma-ray signal, in coincidence with the gravitational-wave signal produced during the merging process. This event could be detected through multimessenger observation of BNS mergers employing the synergy between gravitational-wave detectors and gamma-ray telescopes. Here, we study the sensitivity of current and proposed MeV gamma-ray experiments to detect such a signal. As an explicit example, we consider ALP couplings related as in the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov axion model, and show that in this case the proposed instruments can reach a sensitivity down to ⁢ ≳few ×10−13  GeV−1 for ≲10−9  eV, comparable with the SN 1987A limit.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1103/krf3-lm4s

Año: 2025

Publicado en: Physical Review D 112, 2 (2025), 023001 [19 pp.]
ISSN: 2470-0010

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EUR/ERC-2017-AdG-788781
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PGC2022-126078NB-C21
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2019-108122GB-C31

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Astronomía y Astrofísica (Dpto. Física Teórica)