Constraining the photon coupling of ultra-light dark-matter axion-like particles by polarization variations of parsec-scale jets in active galaxies

M. M. Ivanov, Y. Y. Kovalev, M. L. Lister, A. G. Panin, Alexander B. Pushkarev, Tuomas Savolainen, Ivan S. Troitsky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Dark matter may consist of axion-like particles with ultra-low masses. Two-photon interactions of these particles affect the polarization of radiation propagating through the dark matter. Coherent oscillations of the Bose condensate of the particles induce periodic changes in the plane of polarisation of emission passing through the condensate. We estimate this effect and analyze MOJAVE VLBA polarization observations of bright downstream features in the parsec-scale jets of active galaxies. Through the non-observation of periodic changes in the polarization angle, we are able to constrain the photon coupling of the ultra-light dark-matter axion-like particles at the level of less than or similar to 10(-12) GeV-1 for masses between similar to 5 x 10(-23) eV and similar to 1.2 x 10(-21) eV.

Original languageEnglish
Article number059
Number of pages23
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2019
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • particle physics
  • cosmology connection
  • cosmology of theories beyond the SM
  • GALACTIC NUCLEI
  • LINEAR-POLARIZATION
  • FIELD OSCILLATIONS
  • VLBA EXPERIMENTS
  • MOJAVE
  • BIREFRINGENCE
  • ALPS

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