Sensitivity of JWST to eV-Scale Decaying Axion Dark Matter
Sandip Roy, Carlos Blanco, Christopher Dessert, Anirudh Prabhu, Tea Temim
Abstract
The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope can resolve eV-scale emission lines arising from dark matter decay. We forecast the end-of-mission sensitivity to the decay of axions, a leading dark matter candidate, in the Milky Way using the blank-sky observations expected during standard operations. Searching for unassociated emission lines will constrain axions in the mass range 0.18 to 2.6 eV with axion-photon couplings g_{aγγ}≳5.5×10^{-12} GeV^{-1}. In particular, these results will constrain nucleophobic QCD axions to masses ≲0.2 eV.
Topics & Concepts
AxionPhysicsSensitivity (control systems)Dark matterScale (ratio)Particle physicsQuantum mechanicsElectronic engineeringEngineeringDark Matter and Cosmic PhenomenaCosmology and Gravitation TheoriesParticle physics theoretical and experimental studies