Search for the imprint of axion-like particles in the highest-energy photons of hard γ-ray blazars

Buehler R, Gallardo G, Maier G, Domínguez A, López M, Meyer M (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Institute of Physics: Hybrid Open Access

Book Volume: 2020

Article Number: 027

Journal Issue: 9

DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2020/09/027

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs), predicted in theories beyond the Standard Model, can have observational effects on the transparency of the Universe to γ rays in the presence of magnetic fields. In this work, we search for effects compatible with the existence of ALPs with 80 months of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, by comparing the distributions of observed highest energy photons from sources beyond redshifts of z ≥ 0.1 with theoretical predictions in the presence of ALPs. We find no evidence for an increased γ-ray transparency due to ALPs and therefore we set limits on the ALPs parameters assuming a value of the intergalactic magnetic field strength of 1 nG. Photon-ALP couplings above 10-11 GeV-1 are excluded for ALP masses ma ≲ 3.0 neV . As the allowed magnetic field parameter space is large, we also test lower magnetic field strengths and no constraints can be set for B≤0.1 nG below the CAST limit. These constraints exclude a region of the parameter space not covered by other γ-ray telescopes and are compatible with limits imposed by other experiments.

Authors with CRIS profile

Manuel Meyer Lehrstuhl für Physik

Involved external institutions

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY DE Germany (DE) Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) ES Spain (ES)

How to cite

APA:

Buehler, R., Gallardo, G., Maier, G., Domínguez, A., López, M., & Meyer, M. (2020). Search for the imprint of axion-like particles in the highest-energy photons of hard γ-ray blazars. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020(9). https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2020/09/027

MLA:

Buehler, R., et al. "Search for the imprint of axion-like particles in the highest-energy photons of hard γ-ray blazars." Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2020.9 (2020).

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