Article,
Multimessenger Constraints on Radiatively Decaying Axions from GW170817
Contributors
Diamond, Melissa D
0000-0003-1221-9475
[1]
Tamborra, Irene
0000-0001-7449-104X
[2]
Vitagliano, Edoardo
0000-0001-7847-1281
[4]
Affiliations
- [1] Queen's University [NORA names: Canada; America, North; OECD];
- [2] University of Copenhagen [NORA names: KU University of Copenhagen; University; Denmark; Europe, EU; Nordic; OECD];
- [3] University of Maryland, College Park [NORA names: United States; America, North; OECD];
- [4] Hebrew University of Jerusalem [NORA names: Israel; Asia, Middle East; OECD]
Abstract
The metastable hypermassive neutron star produced in the coalescence of two neutron stars can copiously produce axions that radiatively decay into O(100) MeV photons. These photons can form a fireball with characteristic temperature smaller than 1 MeV. By relying on x-ray observations of GW170817/GRB 170817A with CALET CGBM, Konus-Wind, and Insight-HXMT/HE, we present new bounds on the axion-photon coupling for axion masses in the range 1-400 MeV. We exclude couplings down to 5×10^{-11} GeV^{-1}, complementing and surpassing existing constraints. Our approach can be extended to any feebly interacting particle decaying into photons.
Keywords
CALET,
GW170817,
GW170817/GRB 170817A,
Insight-HXMT/HE,
Konus-Wind,
MeV photons,
O(100,
X-ray,
X-ray observations,
axion,
axion mass,
axion-photon coupling,
bounds,
characteristic temperature,
coalescence,
constraints,
coupling,
decaying axions,
fireball,
hypermassive neutron star,
interacting particles,
mass,
multimessenger,
multimessenger constraints,
neutron,
neutron stars,
particles,
photons,
radiation,
stars,
temperature
