Abstract: In the presence of radiation from bright astrophysical sources at radio frequencies, axion dark matter can undergo stimulated decay to two nearly back-to-back photons, meaning that bright sources could have faint counterimages in other parts of the sky. The counterimages will be spectrally distinct from backgrounds, taking the form of a narrow radio line centered at half the axion mass with a spectral width determined by Doppler broadening in the dark matter halo. In essence, axions behave as an imperfect monochromatic mirror. The morphology of the induced images can be nontrivial, with blurring due to the geometry of the source and image as well as spatial smearing due to the galactic kinematics of axion dark matter. I will show that the axion decay-induced counterimages of galactic sources may be bright enough to be detectable with archival data from CHIME and other ongoing or planned radio surveys. CHIME therefore can run as a competitive axion experiment simultaneously with other science objectives, requiring no new hardware.
Bio:
I explore astrophysical manifestations of physics beyond the Standard Model.
My group research interests are at the intersection of astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. Our main goal is to extract as much information as possible about what our Universe is made of by considering how astrophysical systems would be affected with the addition of undiscovered particles and interactions. A major focus of our research is understanding the composition and behavior of dark matter, but we are also interested in other extensions of the Standard Model. While primarily theorists, we do occasionally get into the data when it is available.
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2023-11-27T16:00:002023-11-27T17:00:00CHIME is secretly an axion experimentEvent Information:
Abstract:In the presence of radiation from bright astrophysical sources at radio frequencies, axion dark matter can undergo stimulated decay to two nearly back-to-back photons, meaning that bright sources could have faint counterimages in other parts of the sky. The counterimages will be spectrally distinct from backgrounds, taking the form of a narrow radio line centered at half the axion mass with a spectral width determined by Doppler broadening in the dark matter halo. In essence, axions behave as an imperfect monochromatic mirror. The morphology of the induced images can be nontrivial, with blurring due to the geometry of the source and image as well as spatial smearing due to the galactic kinematics of axion dark matter. I will show that the axion decay-induced counterimages of galactic sources may be bright enough to be detectable with archival data from CHIME and other ongoing or planned radio surveys. CHIME therefore can run as a competitive axion experiment simultaneously with other science objectives, requiring no new hardware.
Bio:
I explore astrophysical manifestations of physics beyond the Standard Model.
My group research interests are at the intersection of astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. Our main goal is to extract as much information as possible about what our Universe is made of by considering how astrophysical systems would be affected with the addition of undiscovered particles and interactions. A major focus of our research is understanding the composition and behavior of dark matter, but we are also interested in other extensions of the Standard Model. While primarily theorists, we do occasionally get into the data when it is available.
Learn More:
See Katelin's personal web page here: Katelin Schutz - Astroparticle, Cosmology, Particle Physics
See her on the Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ) website Event Location:
HENN 318
