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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Electromagnetic instability of compact axion stars

Liina M. Chung-Jukko1,*, Eugene A. Lim1, David J. E. Marsh1, Josu C. Aurrekoetxea2, Eloy de Jong1, and Bo-Xuan Ge1

  • 1Physics Department, Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology Group, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 2Astrophysics, University of Oxford, DWB, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom

  • *liina.jukko@kcl.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. D 108, L061302 – Published 19 September, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.L061302

Abstract

If the dark matter is composed of axions, then axion stars are expected to be abundant in the Universe. We demonstrate in fully nonlinear (3+1) numerical relativity the instability of compact axion stars due to the electromagnetic Chern-Simons term. We show that above the critical coupling constant gaγcrit∝Ms−1.35, compact axion stars of mass Ms are unstable. The instability is caused by parametric resonance between the axion and the electromagnetic field. The existence of stable compact axion stars requires approximately Planck-suppressed couplings to photons. If the coupling exceeds the critical value, then all stable axion stars are necessarily noncompact. Unstable axion stars decay leaving behind a less massive, less compact, remnant. The emitted radiation peaks at a frequency ω∼1/Rs, where Rs is the axion star radius.

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Phys. Rev. D 108, L061302– Published 19 September, 2023
  • Received 13 March 2023
  • Accepted 22 August 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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