8–13 Nov 2026
University of Western Australia
Australia/Perth timezone

New limits on ultralight axion-like dark matter with a pulsar polarisation array

Not scheduled
20m
University of Western Australia

University of Western Australia

Student/ECR Presentation

Speaker

Jackson Mitchell-Bolton (University of Sydney)

Description

Pulsar polarisation arrays (PPAs) enable searches for oscillations in the polarisation position angle of radio waves induced by axion-like particles. They currently provide some of the strongest constraints on ultralight axion-like dark matter (ALDM) of mass 10^-24 eV < m_a < 10^-20 eV. However, other effects during propagation and reception of the radiation also modify its polarisation, posing challenges in obtaining these limits. We present new methods to account for these effects in data from the Parkes radio telescope and apply them to a PPA featuring observations not previously used for this purpose. With this, we derive competitive new limits on the axion-photon coupling for ultralight ALDM.

Primary Abstract Topic Astrophysics/Astronomy

Author

Jackson Mitchell-Bolton (University of Sydney)

Co-authors

Dr Andrew Zic (CSIRO) Ciaran O'Hare (Sydney) Manisha Caleb (The University of Sydney) Marcus Lower (Swinburne University of Technology) Dr Simon Johnston (CSIRO)

Presentation materials

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