Ángel Gil Muyor (U. Padua)

4:00pm Wednesday May 7, 2025
Webinar

Unscrambling the axion-photon conversion: bounds from transient sources

The axion is one of the best-motivated candidates for new physics, as it could solve current puzzles such as the Strong CP Problem or the nature of Dark Matter. An especially appealing possibility for its detection comes from astrophysical sources; hot and dense environments, such as Supernovae or Neutron Star mergers, are efficient factories of axions, which can then be converted into photons in the magnetic field around these sources. The resulting electromagnetic radiation could serve as a smoking gun for axion detection. Even in the absence of such a signal, we can set bounds on the axion couplings. In this talk, we will understand how to set these bounds and predict future sensitivities, with a particular focus on the physics of axion-photon conversion and the role of often-overlooked astrophysical uncertainties.