- Letter
Constraining axions with ZTF
Phys. Rev. D 107, L101303 – Published 17 May, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.L101303
Abstract
The axion-nucleon coupling enables the production of axions through the decay of excited nuclei, and axions produced in the Sun through this process are often a target of helioscope searches. We show for the first time that hot, highly magnetic white dwarfs such as ZTF are a viable target to search for the x-ray signature of axions that were produced by the transition in the core and then converted to photons in the magnetosphere. We calculate that a 100 ks observation of ZTF with NuSTAR would constrain the coupling of axions to nucleons and photons at a level below the bounds of both current and future planned helioscopes.