The experimental challenge of detecting solar axion-like particles to test cosmological ALP-photon oscillation hypothesis

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the feasibility of detecting solar axion-like particles through experimental tests, concluding that current proposed detectors are insufficiently sensitive to test the ALP-photon oscillation hypothesis effectively.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of the experimental challenges and limitations in detecting ALPs, highlighting the need for more sensitive detectors to test cosmological ALP-photon oscillation hypotheses.

Findings

Proposed detectors are 1-2 orders of magnitude less sensitive than needed.

Current sensitivity levels are insufficient for meaningful tests.

Alternative experimental approaches are briefly discussed.

Abstract

We consider possible experimental tests of recent hypotheses suggesting that TeV photons survive the pair production interaction with extragalactic background light over cosmological distances by converting to axion-like particles (ALPs) in galactic magnetic fields. We show that proposed giant ultra-low background scintillation detectors will even have a difficult time reaching the present CAST sensitivity, which is one to two orders of magnitude less sensitive than necessary for a meaningful test of the ALP-photon oscillation hypothesis. Potential alternative tests are briefly discussed.