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1. Neutron star cooling with lepton-flavor-violating axions

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.103005  

   Zhang, Hong-Yi; Hagimoto, Ray; Long, Andrew J (May 2024, Physical Review D)

   The cores of dense stars are a powerful laboratory for studying feebly coupled particles such as axions. Some of the strongest constraints on axionlike particles and their couplings to ordinary matter derive from considerations of stellar axion emission. In this work we study the radiation of axionlike particles from degenerate neutron star matter via a lepton-flavor-violating coupling that leads to muon-electron conversion when an axion is emitted. We calculate the axion emission rate per unit volume (emissivity) and by comparing with the rate of neutrino emission, we infer upper limits on the lepton-flavor-violating coupling that are at the level of $\left|g_{ae\mu }\right|\lesssim {10}^{-6}$. For the hotter environment of a supernova, such as SN 1987A, the axion emission rate is enhanced and the limit is stronger, at the level of $\left|g_{ae\mu }\right|\lesssim {10}^{-11}$, competitive with laboratory limits. Interestingly, our derivation of the axion emissivity reveals that axion emission via the lepton-flavor-violating coupling is suppressed relative to the familiar lepton-flavor-preserving channels by the square of the plasma temperature to muon mass ratio, which is responsible for the relatively weaker limits. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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2. Pulsar Nulling and Vacuum Radio Emission from Axion Clouds

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.161001  

   Caputo, Andrea; Witte, Samuel J; Philippov, Alexander A; Jacobson, Ted (October 2024, Physical Review Letters)

   Nonrelativistic axions can be efficiently produced in the polar caps of pulsars, resulting in the formation of a dense cloud of gravitationally bound axions. Here, we investigate the interplay between such an axion cloud and the electrodynamics in the pulsar magnetosphere, focusing specifically on the dynamics in the polar caps, where the impact of the axion cloud is expected to be most pronounced. For sufficiently light axions $m_a\lesssim {10}^{-7}\mathrm{eV}$, we show that the axion cloud can occasionally screen the local electric field responsible for particle acceleration and pair production, inducing a periodic nulling of the pulsar’s intrinsic radio emission. At larger axion masses, the small-scale fluctuations in the axion field tend to suppress the backreaction of the axion on the electrodynamics; however, we point out that the incoherent oscillations of the axion in short-lived regions of vacuum near the neutron star surface can produce a narrow radio line, which provides a complementary source of radio emission to the plasma-resonant emission processes identified in previous work. While this Letter focuses on the leading order correction to pair production in the magnetosphere, we speculate that there can exist dramatic deviations in the electrodynamics of these systems when the axion backreaction becomes nonlinear. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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3. Heavy Neutral Leptons via Axionlike Particles at Neutrino Facilities

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.261802  

   Abdullahi, Asli M; de_Gouvêa, André; Dutta, Bhaskar; Shoemaker, Ian M; Tabrizi, Zahra (December 2024, Physical Review Letters)

   Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) are often among the hypothetical ingredients behind nonzero neutrino masses. If sufficiently light, they can be produced and detected in fixed-target-like experiments. We show that if the HNLs belong to a richer—but rather generic—dark sector, their production mechanism can deviate dramatically from expectations associated with the standard-model weak interactions. In more detail, we postulate that the dark sector contains an axionlike particle (ALP) that naturally decays into HNLs. Since ALPs mix with the pseudoscalar hadrons, the HNL flux might be predominantly associated with the production of neutral mesons (e.g., ${\pi }^0$, $\eta$) as opposed to charge hadrons (e.g., ${\pi }^{\pm }$, $K^{\pm }$). In this case, the physics responsible for HNL production and decay are not directly related and experiments like DUNE might be sensitive to HNLs that are too weakly coupled to the standard model to be produced via weak interactions, as is generically the case of HNLs that play a direct role in the type-I seesaw mechanism. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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4. Search for a Hidden Sector Scalar from Kaon Decay in the Dimuon Final State at ICARUS

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.151801  

   Abd_Alrahman, F; Abratenko, P; Abrego-Martinez, N; Aduszkiewicz, A; Akbar, F; Aliaga_Soplin, L; Alvarez_Garrote, R; Artero_Pons, M; Asaadi, J; Badgett, W F; et al (April 2025, Physical Review Letters)

   We present a search for long-lived particles (LLPs), produced in kaon decays, that decay to two muons inside the ICARUS neutrino detector. This channel would be a signal of hidden sector models that can address outstanding issues in particle physics such as the strong CP problem and the microphysical origin of dark matter. The search is performed with data collected in the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam at Fermilab corresponding to $2.41\times {10}^{20}$protons-on-target. No new physics signal is observed, and we set world leading limits on heavy QCD axions, as well as for the Higgs portal scalar among dedicated searches. Limits are also presented in a model-independent way applicable to any new physics model predicting the process $K\to \pi +S(\to \mu \mu )$, for a LLP $S$. This result is the first search for new physics performed with the ICARUS detector at Fermilab. It paves the way for the future program of LLP searches at ICARUS. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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5. Resonant conversion of axion dark radiation into terahertz electromagnetic radiation in a neutron star magnetosphere

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.103020  

   Long, Andrew J; Schiappacasse, Enrico D (November 2024, Physical Review D)

   In the strong magnetic field of a neutron star’s magnetosphere, axions coupled to electromagnetism develop a nonzero probability to convert into photons. Past studies have revealed that the axion-photon conversion can be resonantly enhanced. We recognize that the axion-photon resonance admits two parametrically distinct resonant solutions, which we call the mass-matched resonance and the Euler-Heisenberg assisted resonance. The mass-matched resonance occurs at a point in the magnetosphere where the radially-varying plasma frequency crosses the axion mass ${\omega }_{\mathrm{pl}}\approx m_a$. The Euler-Heisenberg assisted resonance occurs where the axion energy satisfies $\omega \approx (2{\omega }_{\mathrm{pl}}^2/7g_{\gamma \gamma \gamma \gamma }{\overline{B}}^2{)}^{1/2}$. This second resonance is made possible though the strong background magnetic field $\overline{B}$, as well as the nonzero Euler-Heisenberg four-photon self-interaction, which has the coupling $g_{\gamma \gamma \gamma \gamma }=8{\alpha }^2/45m_e^4$. We study the resonant conversion of relativistic axion dark radiation into photons via the Euler-Heisenberg assisted resonance, and we calculate the expected electromagnetic radiation assuming different values for the axion-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma \gamma }$and different amplitudes for the axion flux onto the neutron star ${\mathrm{\Phi }}_a$. We briefly discuss several possible sources of axion dark radiation. Achieving a sufficiently strong axion flux to induce a detectable electromagnetic signal seems unlikely. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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