RT Journal Article
T1 Search for the imprint of axion-like particles in the highest-energy photons of hard γ-ray blazars
A1 Buehler, Rolf
A1 Gallardo, Galo
A1 Maier, Gernot
A1 Domínguez Díaz, Alberto
A1 López Moya, Marcos
A1 Meyer, Manuel
AB Axion-like particles (ALPs), predicted in theories beyond the Standard Model, can have observational effects on the transparency of the Universe to γ rays in the presence of magnetic fields. In this work, we search for effects compatible with the existence of ALPs with 80 months of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, by comparing the distributions of observed highest energy photons from sources beyond redshifts of z ⩾ 0.1 with theoretical predictions in the presence of ALPs. We find no evidence for an increased γ-ray transparency due to ALPs and therefore we set limits on the ALPs parameters assuming a value of the intergalactic magnetic field strength of 1 nG. Photon-ALP couplings above 10−11 GeV−1 are excluded for ALP masses ma ≲ 3.0 neV . As the allowed magnetic field parameter space is large, we also test lower magnetic field strengths and no constraints can be set for B⩽0.1 nG below the CAST limit. These constraints exclude a region of the parameter space not covered by other γ-ray telescopes and are compatible with limits imposed by other experiments.
PB IOP Publishing
SN 1475-7516
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100096
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100096
LA eng
NO Buehler, R., Gallardo, G., Maier, G., Domínguez, A., López, M., & Meyer, M. (2020). Search for the imprint of axion-like particles in the highest-energy photons of hard γ-ray blazars. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020(09), 027.
NO National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NO United States Department of Energy
NO Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique en France
NO Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Francia)
NO Agenzia Spaziale Italiana in Italy
NO Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italia)
NO Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan)
NO High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (Japan)
NO Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
NO Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation
NO Swedish Research Council
NO Swedish National Space Board in Sweden
NO Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (Italia)
NO Centre National d'Études Spatiales (Francia)
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025