Searching for axion dark matter with MeerKAT Radio Telescope

Understand

Axions provide a natural and well-motivated dark matter candidate, with the capability to convert directly to photons in the presence of an electromagnetic field.

• A particularly compelling observational target is the conversion of dark matter axions into photons in the magnetospheres of highly magnetised neutron stars, which is expected to produce a narrow spectral peak centred at the frequency of the axion mass.
• We point the MeerKAT radio telescope towards the isolated neutron star J0806.4$-$4123 for $10$-hours of observation and obtain the radio spectra in the frequency range $769$-$1051$ MHz.
• By modelling the conversion process of infalling axion dark matter (DM), we then compare these spectra to theoretical expectations for a given choice of axion parameters.