2006/07/18 by A. Mirizzi, G. G. Raffelt, P. D. Serpico
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73518-2_7
published as Lect.NotesPhys.741:115-134,2008 · (14 pages, 9 eps figures) Contribution to appear in a volume of Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer-Verlag) on Axions
arxiv created 2006/07/18 · arxiv updated 2014/11/18
Photon-axion conversion induced by intergalactic magnetic fields causes an apparent dimming of distant sources, notably of cosmic standard candles such as supernovae of type Ia (SNe Ia). We review the impact of this mechanism on the luminosity-redshift relation of SNe Ia, on the dispersion of quasar spectra, and on the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background. The original idea of explaining the apparent dimming of distant SNe Ia without cosmic acceleration is strongly constrained by these arguments. However, the cosmic equation of state extracted from the SN Ia luminosity-redshift relation remains sensitive to this mechanism. For example, it can mimic phantom energy.