Searching for axion-like particles under strong gravitational lenses

Abstract

We establish strong gravitational lens systems as robust probes of axion-like particles (ALPs) -- a candidate for dark matter. A tiny interaction of photons with ALPs induces birefringence. Multiple images of gravitationally lensed polarised objects allow differential birefringence measurement, alleviating systematics and astrophysical dependencies. We apply this novel method to the lens system CLASS B1152+199 and constrain ALP-photon coupling $\le 9.2\times 10^{-11}{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}\text{ to }7.7\times 10^{-8}{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}$ ($95\%$ C.L.) for ALP mass between $3.6\times 10^{-21}\mathrm{eV}$ and $4.6\times 10^{-18}\mathrm{eV}$. A larger sample will improve the constraints.

6 pages, 3 figures, reference updated, Submitted

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Testing the ALP-photon coupling with polarization measurements of Sagittarius A*
• BICEP / Keck XIV: Improved constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background
• Gravitational waves and neutrino oscillations in Chern-Simons axion gravity
• Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background with POLARBEAR
• BICEP / Keck XII: Constraints on axion-like polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background
• Terrestrial Probes of Electromagnetically Interacting Dark Radiation
• Exploration of the polarization angle variability of the Crab Nebula with POLARBEAR and its application to the search for axion-like particles
• Hunting Galactic Axion Dark Matter with Gravitationally Lensed Fast Radio Bursts
• Axion Cloud Decay due to the Axion-photon Conversion with Background Magnetic Fields
• Lensed fast radio bursts as a probe of time-varying gravitational potential induced by wave dark matter