Constraints on axions from patchy screening of the cosmic microwave background
| Autor: | Goldstein, Samuel, McCarthy, Fiona, Mondino, Cristina, Hill, J. Colin, Huang, Junwu, Johnson, Matthew C. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2024 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| Popis: | The resonant conversion of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons into axions within large-scale structure induces an anisotropic spectral distortion in CMB temperature maps. Applying state-of-the-art foreground cleaning techniques to $\textit{Planck}$ CMB observations, we construct maps of axion-induced "patchy screening" of the CMB. We cross-correlate these maps with data from the $\textit{unWISE}$ galaxy survey and find no evidence of axions. We constrain the axion-photon coupling, $g_{a\gamma\gamma} \lesssim 2 \times 10^{-12}~{\rm GeV}^{-1}$, at the 95% confidence level for axion masses in the range $10^{-13}~{\rm eV} \lesssim m_a \lesssim 10^{-12}~{\rm eV}$. These constraints are competitive with the tightest astrophysical axion limits in this mass range and are inferred from robust population-level statistics, which makes them complementary to existing searches that rely on modeling of individual systems. Comment: 5+15 pages; 3+15 figures |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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