2002/02/28 by Edvard Mörtsell, Edvard Mortsell, Lars Bergstrom +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Axion #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark matter #Galaxy #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Intergalactic travel #Photometry (optics) #Photon #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quasar #Redshift #Stars #Supernova #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.66.047702
published as Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 047702 · 5 pages, 5 figures. Confusing typo corrected
arxiv created 2002/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2002/08/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We compute the probability of photon-axion oscillations in the presence of both intergalactic magnetic fields and an electron plasma and investigate the effect on type Ia supernovae observations. The conversion probability is calculated using a density matrix formalism by following light paths through simulated universes in a Monte Carlo fashion. We find that, even though the effect is highly frequency dependent, one needs to analyze relatively narrow spectral features of high redshift objects in order to discriminate between the dimming effect from oscillations and a cosmological constant, in contrast with earlier claims that broadband photometry is sufficient. However, it should be possible to put severe constraints on the effect by studying, e.g., quasar-, gamma-ray burst-, and galaxy-spectra.