Relevance of VHE Blazar Spectra Models with Axion-Like Particles

TL;DR

This study investigates how photon-ALP oscillations could influence VHE gamma-ray spectra of blazars, using observational data from Mrk 421 to constrain ALP parameters and assess model dependencies.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on ALP parameters based on VHE gamma-ray observations and examines the impact of intrinsic spectral models on these constraints.

Findings

No significant dependence of ALP constraints on spectral models.

95% CL constraints on photon-ALP coupling at g_{aγ} ≳ 3×10^{-11} GeV^{-1}.

Constraints applicable for ALP masses between 10^{-8} and 2×10^{-7} eV.

Abstract

The oscillation of photons and axion-like particles (ALPs) in the astrophysical magnetic fields could modify the measured very high energy (VHE; $\mathcal{E}\gtrsim 100\, \rm GeV$) $\gamma$-ray spectra of the blazar sources. In this paper, we use the VHE $\gamma$-ray observations of the blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) measured by MAGIC and Fermi-LAT in 2017 with four phases to constrain the ALP. We give the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of these phases under the null and ALP hypotheses. We also test the effects of the $\gamma$-ray blazar intrinsic spectra models on the ALP constraints. No significant relationship is confirmed between the ALP constraints and the model selections. The 95% $\rm C.L.$ combined constraints set by the single-model and multi-model scenarios on the ALP parameter space are roughly at the photon-ALP coupling $g_{a\gamma} \gtrsim 3\times 10^{-11} \rm \, GeV^{-1}$ for the ALP mass $1\times 10^{-8}\, {\rm eV} \lesssim m_a \lesssim 2\times 10^{-7}\, \rm eV$.