Speaker
Description
As experiments continue to narrow the viable WIMP parameter
space, axions have become an increasingly popular candidate
for dark matter. The nature of the axion coupling to the Standard
Model makes them far more difficult to constrain, especially in
the mass ranges usually considered for cold dark matter. So far,
astrophysical experiments have struggled to place strong limits
on such axions. In this work we will consider if the stimulated
decay of axions, producing spectral lines, near Saggitarius A* provides more powerful constraints. This is done by leveraging
models for the “spiked” dark matter density profile near black
holes as well as the reported radio flux around the galactic
centre. For density profiles compatible with recent studies of the
presence of a spike, we determine sensitivity projections for SKA,
MeerKAT, and SKA VLBI. These are up to two orders of magnitude
better than previous estimates for the SKA.
