Speaker
Description
Ultralight axion‑like dark matter (ALDM) is a well‑motivated candidate whose wave‑like nature is manifest on astronomical scales. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) and pulsar polarization arrays (PPAs) offer complementary probes: PTAs search for ALDM imprints on pulse arrival times, while PPAs target linear polarization angle rotations induced by the axion–photon Chern–Simons coupling. In this talk, I will review the status of ALDM searches with PTAs and PPAs, stressing in particular the importance of accounting for the characteristic spatial correlations of the ALDM field. I will also discuss recent efforts to combine timing and polarization data, with the aim of enhancing the ability of pulsar arrays to identify ALDM signals in real observations.
