2003/03/04 by Edvard Mortsell, Edvard M rtsell, Ariel Goobar · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2003/04/003
published as JCAP 0304 (2003) 003 · 14 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2003/03/04 · openalex publication_date 2003/04/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Using quasar spectra from the SDSS survey, we constrain the possibility of photon–axion oscillations as a source of dimming of high redshift objects. Such a process has been suggested as an explanation of the apparent faintness of distant Type Ia supernovae. For most combinations of magnetic field strengths and plasma densities along the line of sight, large beam attenuations in broad-band filters would also lead to significant differential attenuation, not observed in the quasar sample. However, this conservative study does not exclude the possibility of ∼0.1 mag dimming of Type Ia supernovae for average plasma densities n e ≲ 10 −8 cm −3 . NIR and MIR spectroscopic studies of high- z sources may be used to put further constraints or provide indirect evidence for the existence of a very light axion.