Plasma-based wakefield accelerators as sources of axion-like particles

TL;DR

This paper proposes a plasma wakefield accelerator as a terrestrial source of axion-like particles, potentially comparable to solar sources, especially for dark matter detection experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel plasma-based method to generate axion-like particles with flux densities comparable to solar sources, relevant for dark matter searches.

Findings

Terrestrial plasma wakefield can produce axion-like particles with significant flux.

The flux density is comparable to solar axion-like particles at Earth.

Optimal for axion-like particles in the mass range of current dark matter experiments.

Abstract

We estimate the average flux density of minimally-coupled axion-like particles generated by a laser-driven plasma wakefield propagating along a constant strong magnetic field. Our calculations suggest that a terrestrial source based on this approach could generate a pulse of axion-like particles whose flux density is comparable to that of solar axion-like particles at Earth. This mechanism is optimal for axion-like particles with mass in the range of interest of contemporary experiments designed to detect dark matter using microwave cavities.