Speaker
Chris Dessert
Description
I will discuss a novel search for axions using observations of magnetic white dwarfs (MWDs). Photons produced as thermal radiation at the MWD surface may convert into an axion as they traverse the magnetosphere, but only if they are polarized parallel to the MWD magnetic field. This introduces a linear polarization in MWD optical spectra that points perpendicular to the MWD magnetic field. I detail the analysis of archival linear polarization spectra of the nearby MWD SDSS J135141.13+541947.4 to set the constraint $|g_{a\gamma\gamma}| \leq 5.4 \times 10^{−12}$ GeV$^{−1}$ at $95\%$ confidence for axion masses $m_a \leq 3 \times 10^{−7}$ eV, which disfavors the axion explanation of the TeV transparency anomaly.
Author
Chris Dessert
