Zhang Jun, Lyu Zhenwei, Huang Junwu, Johnson Matthew C, Sagunski Laura, Sakellariadou Mairi, Yang Huan
Theoretical Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe & Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Oct 15;127(16):161101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.161101.
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 1.6×10^{16} to 10^{18} GeV at a 3σ 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.
轻轴子场如果存在的话，由于其与核物质的耦合，可由中子星产生，并在双中子星合并中发挥作用。我们通过分析双中子星并合GW170817产生的引力波来报告对这类轴子的搜寻。我们在采样的参数空间中未发现轴子存在的证据。这一零结果使我们能够通过在3σ置信水平下排除衰变常数范围从1.6×10¹⁶到10¹⁸ GeV的轴子，对质量低于10⁻¹¹ eV的轴子施加限制。我们的分析提供了首个来自中子星并合对轴子的限制，并排除了现有实验尚未探测的参数空间中的一大区域。
