6533b839fe1ef96bd12a65e3
RESEARCH PRODUCT
No chiral light bending by clumps of axion-like particles
Diego BlasMikhail M. IvanovMikhail M. IvanovAndrea CaputoLaura Sbernasubject
High Energy Physics - TheoryPhysicsCosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)BirefringencePhoton010308 nuclear & particles physicsEikonal equationFOS: Physical sciencesPhysics::OpticsAstronomy and AstrophysicsPolarization (waves)01 natural sciencesMolecular physicsRayPhysics::GeophysicsHigh Energy Physics - PhenomenologyHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)Space and Planetary Science0103 physical sciencesWave vectorChirality (chemistry)010303 astronomy & astrophysicsAxionAstrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysicsdescription
We study the propagation of light in the presence of a parity-violating coupling between photons and axion-like particles (ALPs). Naively, this interaction could lead to a split of light rays into two separate beams of different polarization chirality and with different refraction angles. However, by using the eikonal method we explicitly show that this is not the case and that ALP clumps do not produce any spatial birefringence. This happens due to non-trivial variations of the photon's frequency and wavevector, which absorb time-derivatives and gradients of the ALP field. We argue that these variations represent a new way to probe the ALP-photon couping with precision frequency measurements.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-10-14 |