New Opportunities for Detecting Axion-Lepton Interactions

Abstract

We revisit the theory and constraints on axion-like particles (ALPs) interacting with leptons. We clarify some subtleties in the constraints on ALP parameter space and find several new opportunities for ALP detection. We identify a qualitative difference between weak-violating and weak-preserving ALPs, which dramatically change the current constraints due to possible "energy enhancements" in various processes. This new understanding leads to additional opportunities for ALP detection through charged meson decays (e.g., ${\pi }^{+}\to e^{+}\nu a$, $K^{+}\to e^{+}\nu a$) and $W$ boson decays. The new bounds impact both weak-preserving and weak-violating ALPs and have implications for the QCD axion and addressing experimental anomalies using ALPs.

10 pages, 2 figures; updated to match published version

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• A Leptonic ALP Portal to the Dark Sector
• Lepton-Flavor-Violating ALP Signals with TeV-Scale Muon Beams
• New Physics Search at the CEPC: a General Perspective
• Sub-GeV dark matter and nano-Hertz gravitational waves from a classically conformal dark sector
• A twisted tale of the transverse-mass tail
• Leptophilic Axion-like Particles at Forward Detectors
• Hunting for a 17 MeV particle coupled to electrons
• Searching for long-lived light neutralinos and axionlike particles at the SHiNESS experiment
• Muon g-2, Long-Range Muon Spin Force, and Neutrino Oscillations
• Finding BSM Needles in Electromagnetic Haystacks at DUNE
• Positivity and partial wave unitarity bounds on ALP theories via amplitude methods