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arXiv · 1710.10376

Searching for Axion Dark Matter using Radio Telescopes

Katharine Kelley·P. J. Quinn
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Abstract

We investigate the use of next generation radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) to detect axion two-photon coupling in the astrophysical environment. The uncertainty surrounding astrophysical magnetic fields presents new challenges, but with a frequency range corresponding to axions of mass $1.7-57\mu$eV and a spectral profile with a number of distinguishing features, SKA-mid offers a tantalising opportunity to constrain axion dark matter properties. To determine the sensitivity of SKA-mid to an axion signal, we consider observations of the Galactic centre and interstellar medium, and find that this new telescope could allow us to probe axion couplings $\gtrsim10^{-16}$GeV$^{-1}$.

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Katharine Kelley, P. J. Quinn. 2017-10-28. Searching for Axion Dark Matter using Radio Telescopes. https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.10376

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