Updated Bounds on Axion-Like Particles from X-ray Observations

Abstract

In this work we revisit five different point sources within or behind galaxy clusters in order to constrain the coupling constant between axion-like particles (ALPs) and photons. We use three distinct machine learning (ML) techniques and compare our results with a standard ${\chi }^2$ analysis. For the first time we apply approximate Bayesian computation to searches for ALPs and find consistently good performance across ML classifiers. Further, we apply more realistic 3D magnetic field simulations of galaxy clusters and compare our results with previously used 1D simulations. We find constraints on the ALP-photon coupling at the level of state-of-the-art bounds with $g_{a\gamma \gamma }\lesssim 0.6\times 10^{-12}$ GeV${}^{-1}$, hence improving on previous constraints obtained from the same observations.

arXiv commentv2: minor changes, 14 pages, 7 figures, 11 tables; matches accepted version to appear in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• New constraints on light Axion-Like Particles using Chandra Transmission Grating Spectroscopy of the powerful cluster-hosted quasar H1821+643
• Observability of the very-high-energy emission from GRB 221009A
• ALP induced polarization effects on photons from galaxy clusters
• Photon-ALP oscillations inducing modifications to photon polarization
• Magnetohydrodynamics predicts heavy-tailed distributions of axion-photon conversion
• Physics Beyond the Standard Model with Future X-ray Observatories: Projected Constraints on Very-Light Axion-Like Particles with $Athena$ and $AXIS$
• Revisiting the evidences for spectral anomalies in distant blazars: new data on the photon-ALP mixing