First Constraints on Nuclear Coupling of Axionlike Particles from the Binary Neutron Star Gravitational Wave Event GW170817

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First Constraints on Nuclear Coupling of Axionlike Particles from the Binary Neutron Star Gravitational Wave Event GW170817

Jun Zhang, Zhenwei Lyu, Junwu Huang, Matthew C. Johnson, Laura Sagunski, Mairi Sakellariadou, and Huan Yang

Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 161101 – Published 11 October 2021

Abstract

Light axion fields, if they exist, can be sourced by neutron stars due to their coupling to nuclear matter, and play a role in binary neutron star mergers. We report on a search for such axions by analyzing the gravitational waves from the binary neutron star inspiral GW170817. We find no evidence of axions in the sampled parameter space. The null result allows us to impose constraints on axions with masses below $10^{- 11} eV$ by excluding the ones with decay constants ranging from $1.6 \times 10^{16}$ to $10^{18} GeV$ at a $3 σ$ confidence level. Our analysis provides the first constraints on axions from neutron star inspirals, and rules out a large region in parameter space that has not been probed by the existing experiments.

Received 7 June 2021
Accepted 15 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.161101

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitational waves

Axions Binary stars

Gravitation, Cosmology & AstrophysicsParticles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Jun Zhang ^1,2,*, Zhenwei Lyu ^3,4,†, Junwu Huang ^4,‡, Matthew C. Johnson^5,4,§, Laura Sagunski ^6,∥, Mairi Sakellariadou ^7,8,¶, and Huan Yang^3,4,**

¹Theoretical Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
²Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe & Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
³University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
⁴Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada
⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
⁶Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
⁷Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology Group, Physics Department, King’s College London, University of London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
⁸Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland

^*jun.zhang@imperial.ac.uk
^†zlyu@uoguelph.ca
^‡jhuang@perimeterinstitute.ca
^§mjohnson@perimeterinstitute.ca
^∥sagunski@itp.uni-frankfurt.de
^¶mairi.sakellariadou@kcl.ac.uk
^**hyang@perimeterinstitute.ca

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 16 — 15 October 2021

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