BSM PANDEMIC Seminars

BSM PANDEMIC Delta Series: Ben Lehmann (UC Santa Cruz) and Chris Dessert (Michigan)

America/New_York
Description

Benjamin Lehmann (UC Santa Cruz)

Massive black hole binaries as particle physics laboratories

Supermassive black hole binary mergers generate a stochastic gravitational wave background detectable by pulsar timing arrays. While the amplitude of this background is subject to significant uncertainties, the frequency dependence is a robust prediction of general relativity. We show that the effects of new forces beyond the Standard Model can modify this prediction and introduce unique features into the spectral shape. In particular, we consider the possibility that black holes in binaries are charged under a new long-range force, and we find that pulsar timing arrays are capable of robustly detecting such forces. Supermassive black holes and their environments can acquire charge due to high-energy particle production or dark sector interactions, making the measurement of the spectral shape a powerful test of fundamental physics.

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Christopher Dessert (Michigan/Berkeley/LBNL)

The QCD Axion and Neutron Star Cooling

The quantum chromodynamics (QCD) axion may modify the cooling rates of neutron stars (NSs). The axions are produced within the NS cores from nucleon bremsstrahlung and, when the nucleons are in superfluid states, Cooper pair breaking and formation processes. I discuss recent work that studied the cooling of several nearby isolated NSs with well-measured ages and surface luminosities to constrain the mass of the QCD axion. We compare these data to dedicated NS cooling simulations incorporating axions, profiling over uncertainties related to the equation of state, NS masses, surface compositions, and superfluidity.