Now we have some good news for all you particle physics junkies. It looks like the axion may just be starting to reveal itself in unusual flashes associated with nearby neutron stars. A favorite of sci-fi authors and showrunners, these particles were theorized in the 1970s as one of the fundamental particles of our universe. If they exist, they have mass and might be part of the hidden dark matter that makes up so much of the universe. They also have this neat predicted property of converting into light in the presence of a strong magnetic field.

Well, some of the strongest known magnetic fields are associated with neutron stars, and there are seven young, not-too-distant neutron stars in utterly boring regions of space that have excess X-ray light that can’t be explained by anything other than axions… or unknown physics. This X-ray light was seen in both the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray telescopes.

According to study co-author Raymond Co: We’re not claiming that we’ve made the discovery of the axion yet, but we’re saying that 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.

This work is published in the journal Physics Review Letters and is led by Malte Buschmann.  No matter how it turns out – new physics or axions – this is exciting news, even if it does break the brain a little. 

More Information

Berkeley Lab press release

“Axion Emission Can Explain a New Hard X-Ray Excess from Nearby Isolated Neutron Stars,” Malte Buschmann et al., 2021 January 12, Physical Review Letters