Axion oscillations in binary systems: angle-action surgery

Abstract

Scalar, tensor waves induce oscillatory perturbations in Keplerian systems that can be probed with measurements of pulsar timing residuals. In this paper, we consider the imprint of coherent oscillations produced by ultralight axion dark matter on the Roemer time delay. We use the angle-action formalism to calculate the time evolution of the observed signal and its dependence on the orbital parameters and the axion phase. We derive exact analytical expressions for arbitrary binary pulsar mass ratio and eccentricity, alleviating the need for long numerical integrations. We emphasize the similarity of the expected signal-to-noise ratio with the response of a harmonic oscillator to an external oscillatory driving. We validate our theoretical predictions with numerical simulations. Our results furnish a useful benchmark for numerical codes and analysis procedures and, hopefully, will motivate the search for such imprints in real data.