- 3002 - AXIONS - could they exist in stars? More than 400 light-years from Earth, there is a cluster of young neutron stars that are hot for their age. These stars, known as the "Magnificent Seven," emit a stream of ultra-high-energy X-rays that scientists haven't been able to explain. Could “axions” explain things?
---------------------------------- 3002 - AXIONS - could they exist in stars?
- Now, scientists have proposed a possible culprit, “axions“, theoretical particles that turn into light particles when they are in the presence of a magnetic field.
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- On January, 2021, supercomputers were used to model the idea that axions produced inside the stars could convert to X-rays in the magnetic fields outside the stars. Axions have never been observed directly, but they were first theorized to exist in the 1970s.
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- The new computer modeling may point to something outside the Standard Model of physics, which describes known subatomic particles.
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- Given their age and type, the Magnificent Seven stars should be emitting only low-energy X-rays and ultraviolet light. But astronomers have observed something they can't explain: high-energy X-rays coming off the stars.
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- Neutron stars are the leftovers from giant stars that have exhausted their fuel and collapsed; one type of neutron star, called a “pulsar“, gives off emissions across the electromagnetic spectrum, including high-energy X-rays. But the Magnificent Seven aren't pulsars.
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- Axions have also been proposed as a solution to the mystery. But could axions really be produced inside a neutron star? You have to model the interior of a neutron star in order to predict how many axions should be produced inside of that star.
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- An axion, if it exists, is an elementary particle with a very low mass. Axions might be a component of dark matter, the unobserved stuff that seems to make up over a quarter of the universe's mass, based on its gravitational effects.
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- Axions might work a lot like neutrinos, another extremely light subatomic particle that has been shown to exist. Neutrinos are produced inside neutron stars when neutrons bump into one another; axions could be produced in the same way.
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- Given their low mass and weak interactions with other matter, axions could easily escape the cores of neutron stars and zip out into space. Extremely strong magnetic fields surround neutron stars. In the presence of these fields, axions would convert into photons, or light particles. Traveling at wavelengths shorter than visible light, these light particles would register as high-energy X-rays on astronomical instrumentation.
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- The extra X-ray photons can be explained by axions. It is an exciting discovery of the excess in the X-ray photons, and it's an exciting possibility that's already consistent with our interpretation of axions."
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- The next step is to look for axions in white dwarfs, another set of stars that shouldn't emit X-rays. This starts to be pretty compelling that this is something beyond the Standard Model if we see an X-ray excess there, too.
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January 25, 2021 AXIONS - could they exist in stars? 3002
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