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We present numerical calculations of the photon-light-pseudoscalar-boson (LPB) production in the recently discovered binary pulsar system J0737-3039. Light pseudoscalar bosons oscillate into photons in the presence of strong magnetic fields. In the context of this binary pulsar system, this phenomenon attenuates the light beam emitted by one of the pulsars, when the light ray goes through the magnetosphere of the companion pulsar. We show that such an effect is observable in the gamma-ray band since the binary pulsar is seen almost edge-on, depending on the values of the LPB mass and on the strength of its two-photon coupling. Our results are surprising in that they show a very sharp and significant (up to 50%) transition probability in the gamma-ray (> tens of MeV) domain. The observations can be performed by the upcoming NASA GLAST mission.

In this Letter we study the propagation of light in the neighborhood of magnetized neutron stars. Because of the optical properties of quantum vacuum in the presence of a magnetic field, the light emitted by background astronomical objects is deviated, giving rise to a phenomenon of the same kind as the gravitational one. We give a quantitative estimation of this effect, and we discuss the possibility of its observation. We show that this effect could be detected by monitoring the evolution of the recently discovered double neutron star system J0737-3039.