April 2026

02/04/26 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — Probing Axions and WISPs with Astrophysical X-ray Observations
Jaime Ruiz (University College London)

Abstract

Axions and other Weakly Interacting Sub-eV Particles (WISPs) are compelling candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model, offering solutions to the strong-CP problem and viable dark matter components. Astrophysical X-ray observations provide a powerful and complementary approach to searching for these particles through their conversion into photons in large-scale magnetic fields.Using data from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), we pursue multiple strategies for axion detection. We search for axion–photon conversion in the Sun’s atmospheric magnetic field during the 2020 solar minimum, and for axion production via the nuclear M1 transition of 57Fe in the cores of nearby supergiant stars such as Betelgeuse. In addition, NuSTAR observations of Betelgeuse, following the work of Gianotti et al., probe axion production through the Primakoff process and axion–electron interactions, providing sensitivity to axion–photon, axion–nucleon, and axion–electron couplings. These studies yield the most stringent astrophysical constraints to date, improving previous solar and stellar limits by up to 1–1.5 orders of magnitude. Looking ahead, wide-field X-ray surveys such as eROSITA, with improved effective area and a complementary energy range, offer strong potential to further extend astrophysical axion searches across a broad range of masses and couplings. Together with laboratory experiments such as CAST and the forthcoming IAXO, these results underscore the growing role of X-ray astronomy in probing axions, WISPs, and the dark sector.

16/04/26 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
James Chibueze (University of South Africa)
23/04/26 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — New Perspectives onto the Universe in the Multi-messanger astronomy era
Samaya Nissanke (University of Amsterdam)