Extragalactic photon-ALP conversion at CTA energies

Abstract

Magnetic fields in extragalactic space between galaxy clusters may induce conversions between photons and axion-like particles (ALPs), thereby shielding the photons from absorption on the extragalactic background light. For TeV gamma rays, the oscillation length ($l_{\mathrm{osc}}$) of the photon-ALP system becomes inevitably of the same order as the coherence length of the magnetic field ($l$) and the length over which the field changes significantly (transition length $l_{\mathrm{t}}$) due to refraction on background photons. We derive exact statistical evolution equations for the mean and variance of the photon and ALP transfer functions in the non-adiabatic regime ($l_{\mathrm{osc}}\sim l\gg l_{\mathrm{t}}$). We also make analytical predictions for the transfer functions in the quasi-adiabatic regime ($l_{\mathrm{osc}}\ll l,l_{\mathrm{t}}$). Our results are important in light of the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), and may also be applied to models with non-zero ALP masses.

27 pages, 7 figures, matches the published version

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Physics potential of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO)
• Dark matter axion detection in the radio/mm-waveband
• Axion-Like Particles and Recent Observations of the Cosmic Infrared Background Radiation
• Blazar VHE spectral alterations induced by photon-ALP oscillations
• Behavior of axion-like particles in smoothed out domain-like magnetic fields
• Observability of the very-high-energy emission from GRB 221009A
• Constraining Axion-Like-Particles with Hard X-ray Emission from Magnetars
• Axion-like Particles Implications for High-Energy Astrophysics
• Axion Astrophysics
• Massive Argon Space Telescope (MAST): a concept of heavy time projection chamber for gamma-ray astronomy in the 100 MeV --- 1 TeV energy range
• Turbulent axion-photon conversions in the Milky-Way
• Enhancing the Spectral Hardening of Cosmic TeV Photons by Mixing with Axionlike Particles in the Magnetized Cosmic Web
• Axion-like particles from primordial black holes shining through the Universe
• Gamma-ray Cosmology and Tests of Fundamental Physics
• Axions: From Magnetars and Neutron Star Mergers to Beam Dumps and BECs
• Limits on High-Frequency Gravitational Waves in Planetary Magnetospheres
• Gravitational wave search through electromagnetic telescopes
• Searching for the possible signal of the photon-axionlike particle oscillation in the combined GeV and TeV spectra of supernova remnants
• Shimmering gravitons in the gamma-ray sky
• On the origin and the detection of characteristic axion wiggles in photon spectra
• Constraining axion-like particles with the diffuse gamma-ray flux measured by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory
• Effect of axion-like particles on the spectrum of the extragalactic gamma-ray background
• Observable spectral and angular distributions of $\gamma$-rays from extragalactic ultrahigh energy cosmic ray accelerators: the case of extreme TeV blazars
• Probing axion-like particles with multimessenger observations of neutron star mergers
• Constraining gravitational-wave backgrounds from conversions into photons in the Galactic magnetic field
• Intergalactic $\gamma$-ray propagation: basic ideas, processes, and constraints
• Exploring scalar-photon interactions in energetic astrophysical events
• Constraints on Axion-Like Particles from VERITAS Observations of a Flaring Radio Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster
• Distinct photon-ALP propagation modes
• Dark Matter and Fundamental Physics Searches with IACTs
• Constraints on High-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Graviton-Photon Conversion in the M87 Galaxy
• First constraints on axion-like particles from Galactic sub-PeV gamma rays