2014/01/03 by D. Espriu, Espriu, Domenec, Albert Renau +1
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Quantum Information and Cryptography
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1401.0663
openalex publication_date 2014/01/03 · openalex created_date 2022/10/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this work we analyze the propagation of photons in an environment where a\nstrong magnetic field (perpendicular to the photon momenta) coexists with an\noscillating cold axion background with the characteristics expected from dark\nmatter in the galactic halo. Qualitatively, the main effect of the combined\nbackground is to produce a three-way mixing among the two photon polarizations\nand the axion. It is interesting to note that in spite of the extremely weak\ninteraction of photons with the cold axion background, its effects compete with\nthose coming from the magnetic field in some regions of the parameter space. We\ndetermine (with one plausible simplification) the proper frequencies and\neigenvectors as well as the corresponding photon ellipticity and induced\nrotation of the polarization plane that depend both on the magnetic field and\nthe local density of axions. We also comment on the possibility that some of\nthe predicted effects could be measured in optical table-top experiments.\n