Searching for eV-mass Axion-like Particles with Cross Correlations between Line Intensity and Weak Lensing Maps

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to detect axion-like particles by analyzing cross correlations between line intensity maps and weak lensing data, potentially improving current constraints on ALP properties.

Contribution

It develops a theoretical framework for ALP detection via cross correlation and forecasts the sensitivity of upcoming surveys like SPHEREx and LSST.

Findings

Cross correlation can surpass astrophysical line signals at certain wavelengths.

Null detection can set upper bounds on ALP-photon coupling, improving current limits.

Forecasts suggest significant potential for constraining ALP parameters with future surveys.

Abstract

We study cross correlations between line intensity and weak lensing maps to search for axion-like particles (ALPs). Radiative decay of eV-mass ALPs can contribute to cosmic background emissions at optical and infrared wavelengths. Line intensity mapping is a unique means of measuring the background emission at a given photon frequency. If ALPs constitute the abundance of cosmic dark matter, line intensity maps can correlate with large-scale structures probed by weak gravitational lensing effects in galaxy imaging surveys. We develop a theoretical framework to predict the cross correlation. We then explore potentiality of probing ALPs with the cross correlation in upcoming galaxy-imaging and spectral surveys. Assuming SPHEREx and the Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), we find that the cross correlation by the ALP decay can be greater than the astrophysical-line counterparts at wavelength of $\sim3000\, {\rm nm}$ for ALPs with a particle mass of $m_a\sim1\, \mathrm{eV}$ and a particle-to-two-photons coupling of $g_{a\gamma\gamma}\sim1\times10^{-11}\, \mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$. We also predict that a null detection of the cross correlation can place a $2\sigma$-level upper bound of $g_{a\gamma\gamma} \lower.5ex\hbox{$\; \buildrel < \over \sim \;$} 10^{-11}\, \mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ for eV-mass ALPs, improving the current constraint by a factor of $\sim10$. We then make a forecast of expected constraints on ALP parameters in SPHEREx and LSST by Fisher analysis, providing a guideline of searching for the ALP decay with the large-scale structure data.