Multi-messenger signal from QCD-Axion Ultracompact Minihalos

Abstract

We explore the multimessenger signatures from ultracompact minihalos (UCMHs) seeded by stellar-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) and composed of QCD-axion dark matter. Using the secondary-infall framework, with relic-abundance and isocurvature conditions from a pre-inflationary Peccei-Quinn scenario, we numerically recover the characteristic halo profile and adopt a conservative constant-density core for the innermost region. We study the gravitational wave and electromagnetic signatures from neutron-star-PBH inspirals inside these dense structures. Dynamical friction produces a gravitational-wave dephasing relative to the vacuum binary, observable with LISA for primordial black holes with masses $\lesssim\! 10M_\odot$. Simultaneously, gravitationally focused axions can resonantly convert into photons in the neutron-star magnetosphere, producing a narrow-band radio signature. For nearby galactic neutron stars, the projected sensitivity of the Green Bank radio telescope GBT captures the QCD-axion band in the $μ{\rm eV}$ mass range. Gravitational waves therefore probe the presence and structure of the UCMH, while the radio signal probes the particle nature of its dark matter, making their joint observation a distinctive test of a mixed dark sector.