Improving statistical sensitivity of X-ray searches for axion-like particles

Journal article

X-ray observations of bright AGNs in or behind galaxy clusters offer unique capabilities to constrain axion-like particles. Existing analysis technique relies on measurements of the global goodness of fit. We develop a new analysis methodology that improves the statistical sensitivity to ALP–photon oscillations by isolating the characteristic quasi-sinusoidal modulations induced by ALPs. This involves analysing residuals in wavelength space allowing the Fourier structure to be made manifest as well as a machine learning approach. For telescopes with microcalorimeter resolution, simulations suggest these methods give an additional factor of 2 in sensitivity to ALPs compared to previous approaches.

Authors: Conlon, J; Rummel, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 484
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 3573–3581
• Publication date: 2019-01-25
• Acceptance date: 2019-01-17
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz211
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: astroparticle physics; elementary particles