Axion-photon Propagation in Magnetized Universe

Abstract

Oscillations between photons and axion-like particles (ALP) travelling in intergalactic magnetic fields have been invoked to explain a number of astrophysical phenomena, or used to constrain ALP properties using observations. One example is the anomalous transparency of the universe to TeV gamma-rays. The intergalactic magnetic field is usually modeled as patches of coherent domains, each with a uniform magnetic field, but the field orientation changes randomly from one domain to the next ("discrete-$\phi$ model"). We show in this paper that in more realistic situations, when the magnetic field direction varies continuously along the propagation path, the photon-to-ALP conversion probability $P$ can be significantly different from the discrete-$\phi$ model. In particular, $P$ has a distinct dependence on the photon energy and ALP mass, and can be as large as 100 percent. This result may affect previous constraints on ALP properties based on ALP-photon propagation in intergalactic magnetic fields.

15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in JCAP

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Blazar VHE spectral alterations induced by photon-ALP oscillations
• Behavior of axion-like particles in smoothed out domain-like magnetic fields
• Photon-Axion Conversion, Magnetic Field Configuration, and Polarization of Photons
• Axion-like Particles Implications for High-Energy Astrophysics
• Enhancing the Spectral Hardening of Cosmic TeV Photons by Mixing with Axionlike Particles in the Magnetized Cosmic Web
• Photon-ALP oscillations inducing modifications to photon polarization
• Probing Axions via Light Circular Polarization and Event Horizon Telescope
• Axion-like Particle Effects on Photon Polarization in High-Energy Astrophysics
• A p<0.0001 detection of CMB cooling in galactic halos and its possible relation to dark matter
• Constraints on axionlike particles with different magnetic field models from the PKS 2155-304 energy spectrum
• Distinct photon-ALP propagation modes