Explore the Axion Dark Matter through the Radio Signals from Magnetic White Dwarf Stars

TL;DR

This paper proposes using radio signals from magnetic white dwarf stars, specifically WD 2010+310, to detect axion dark matter by observing resonant conversions into radio photons, with future SKA observations potentially probing new parameter space.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to detect axion dark matter via radio signals from magnetic white dwarfs, expanding the search beyond neutron star-based methods.

Findings

Future SKA observations can probe axion-photon coupling up to ~10^{-12} GeV^{-1}.

White dwarf WD 2010+310 offers greater sensitivity than neutron star RX J0806.4-4123 in certain mass ranges.

The method can explore axion masses from 0.2 to 3.7 micro-eV.

Abstract

Axion as one of the promising dark matter candidates can be detected through narrow radio lines emitted from the magnetic white dwarf stars. Due to the existence of the strong magnetic field, the axion may resonantly convert into the radio photon (Primakoff effect) when it passes through a narrow region in the corona of the magnetic white dwarf, where the plasma frequency is equal to the axion mass. We show that for the magnetic white dwarf WD 2010+310, the future experiment SKA phase 1 with 100 hours of observation can effectively probe the parameter space of the axion-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma}$ up to $\sim 10^{-12}~ \text{GeV}^{-1}$ for the axion mass range of $0.2 \sim 3.7~ \mu$eV. Note that in the low mass region ($m_a \lesssim 1.5 ~\mu\text{eV}$), the WD 2010+310 could give greater sensitivity than the neutron star RX J0806.4-4123.