Erlangen 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 102: Axions/ALPs III

T 102.1: Vortrag

Freitag, 20. März 2026, 09:00–09:15, KH 02.019

X-ray Telescopes for Axion Searches — •Francisco Rodríguez Candón — Fakultät für Physik, TU Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Str. 4, 44221 Dortmund, Germany

X-ray telescopes have become powerful tools in the search for weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), in particular QCD axions and axion-like particles (ALPs). Through the Primakoff effect, astrophysical magnetic fields can induce axion-photon conversion, giving X-ray observatories unique sensitivity over a broad axion-mass range. This talk reviews recent progress in ALPs searches with NASA's NuSTAR, the first and currently only focusing hard X-ray space telescope. First, observations of the starburst galaxy M82 yield stringent constraints on heavy decaying ALPs in the 30-500 keV range, probing axion-photon couplings in previously unexplored regions of parameter space. Second, NuSTAR observations of the red supergiant Betelgeuse set new and competitive limits on axion-nucleon couplings for masses below the neV, exploiting axion production via nuclear transitions in stellar interiors. Together, these results improve upon earlier astrophysical bounds and motivate future X-ray space missions such as Athena and AXIS, which are expected to extend sensitivity to even fainter axion signatures.

Keywords: Axions; NuSTAR; X-ray Telescopes; M82; Betelgeuse