Neutron Stars as Axion Laboratories

Explore how neutron stars serve as natural laboratories for detecting axions, one of the most promising candidates for new fundamental physics, in this informal high-energy physics talk by Sam Witte from the University of Oxford. Discover two innovative approaches for using the extreme environments near neutron stars to advance axion searches. Learn about the formation of dense, gravitationally bound axion "clouds" through non-thermal dynamical processes in localized regions of neutron star magnetospheres. Examine how large axion field gradients can be generated directly from matter potentials sourced by the dense nuclear matter of neutron stars themselves. Understand how characteristic axion field gradients near stellar surfaces can become sufficiently large to alter plasma acceleration and production in magnetospheres, resulting in distinctive observational signatures that could revolutionize our understanding of fundamental physics.