A Prime Suspect for Dark Matter Might Be Escaping From Neutron Stars
Image: NASA/Chandra X-Ray Observatory (Fair Use)
After axions were first theorized by physicists in the suburbs of Chicago 45 years ago, they quickly became a robust candidate for explaining dark matter. All this time, though, the ultra-small particles have remained hypothetical. Now, a team of astrophysicists have proposed that axions may be responsible for an excess of X-ray emissions seen coming from a group of neutron stars in our galaxy.
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The stars dubbed the “Magnificent Seven” are neutron stars that emit low-frequency X-ray radiation from their surfaces. Neutron stars are the extremely dense afterlives of collapsed stars. They possess powerful magnetic fields, and, as their name would suggest, are constituted in large part by neutrons. The new research, published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters, focuses on a yet-unexplained bunch of high-frequency X-rays that the seven st
| UPDATED: 09:39, Sat, Jan 16, 2021
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Axions are theoretically created in stars cores and transform into particles of light called photons under the influence of magnetic fields. And these hypothetical axion entities may also dark matter - the elusive substance accounting for as much as 85 percent of the Universe’s total mass.
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Excess x-rays from neutron stars could lead to discovery of new particle
A team of scientists, including a University of Minnesota researcher, have found that mysterious x-rays detected from nearby neutron stars may be the first evidence of axions, hypothetical particles that many physicists believe make up dark matter. If their theory is confirmed, the researchers’ findings could help physicists unravel several mysteries of the universe.
Their paper is published in Physical Review Letters, a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Physical Society.
There are many kinds of particles that make up matter in the universe. The most common are protons, neutrons, and electrons. These particles collide with each other in certain settings, such as inside a star’s core or in particle accelerators built by scientists on Earth. Axions have long been elusive to physicists because they are “weakly interacting,” which means they rarely collide with other part
A new study, led by a theoretical physicist at Berkeley Lab, suggests that never-before-observed particles called axions may be the source of unexplained, high-energy X-ray emissions surrounding a group of neutron stars.