Hunting Axion Dark Matter with Protoplanetary Disk Polarimetry

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K18637
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 16:Astronomy and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Toma Kenji 東北大学, 学際科学フロンティア研究所, 教授 (70729011)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 暗黒物質 / アクシオン / 原始惑星系円盤 / 偏光 / 赤外線

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Protoplanetary disks are ideal for hunting the effects of dark matter candidate axions on polarization, since they show the simplest polarization structure among celestial objects and the observational techniques for them have been developed over the years. We have planned and carried out polarimetric observations of protoplanetary disks using Subaru SCExAO fast-PD+FLC, a high precision polarimetric instrument, which was recently upgraded. We developed an image selection code to extract images that can be used for polarimetric analysis from the more than one million images obtained by this instrument. We also developed a fast-PDI+FLC's polarimetric analysis pipeline, and succeeded in obtaining a polarimetric image of protoplanetary disk SAO206462.

Free Research Field

宇宙物理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

暗黒物質は、宇宙の進化において不可欠と考えられているのにもかかわらず、その正体は全く不明である。その有力候補であるアクシオンの兆候を捕えるため、原始惑星系円盤の偏光を使った独自の方法を実行する道筋を示すことができた。最高精度の偏光観測装置Subaru fast-PDI+FLCの解析パイプラインを世界に先駆けて開発することに成功した。