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

ABSTRACT 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 AL...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMonthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 484; no. 3; pp. 3573 - 3581
Main Authors Conlon, Joseph P, Rummel, Markus
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford University Press 11.04.2019
Subjects
elementary particles
astroparticle physics
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Summary:ABSTRACT 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.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stz211