Determination of pseudo-Goldstone boson-photon coupling by the differential time delay of pulsar signals

Abstract

Pseudo-Goldstone bosons couple with photons through a P and T violating interaction of the form ${\cal {L_I}}=g_{aγγ}~ a F\tilde F$. Strong magnetic fields in rotating compact stars induce a non-zero ${\vec E}\cdot{\vec B}$ outside the stellar surface which acts as a source for the pseudo-scalar field. Pulsar signals propagating through this pseudo-scalar `hair' suffer a differential time lag between the left and the right circularly polarised modes because of the P and T violating pseudoscalar boson-photon interaction. Determination of this time lag upto a microsecond accuracy can lead to a measurment of (or rule out) pseudo-Goldstone boson-photon coupling upto $g_{a γγ}\leq 4.6 \times 10^{-9}~GeV^{-1}$.