Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models
Published on: November 15, 2013
Multimessenger Constraints on Radiatively Decaying Axions from GW170817
M Diamond1, D Fiorillo2, G Marques-Tavares3
1Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astropartical Physics Institute, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
Abstract:
The metastable hypermassive neutron star produced in the coalescence of two neutron stars can copiously produce axions that radiatively decay into O(100) MeV photons. These photons can form a fireball with characteristic temperature smaller than 1 MeV. By relying on x-ray observations of GW170817/GRB 170817A with CALET CGBM, Konus-Wind, and Insight-HXMT/HE, we present new bounds on the axion-photon coupling for axion masses in the range 1-400 MeV. We exclude couplings down to 5×10^{-11} GeV^{-1}, complementing and surpassing existing constraints. Our approach can be extended to any feebly interacting particle decaying into photons.
Related Concept Videos
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape...
Dual Nature of Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation
Wavelength is the distance between two consecutive peaks (the highest point) or troughs (the lowest point) in the wave. Frequency is the...
Reduced Mass Coordinates: Isolated Two-body Problem
Fermi Level Dynamics
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...
Atomic Nuclei: Larmor Precession Frequency
Atomic Radii and Effective Nuclear Charge

