PoS - Proceedings of Science
Volume 417 - 7th Heidelberg International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2022) - Contributed posters
Modeling the Magnetic Field of the Virgo Cluster For Axion Like Particle Search in Gamma Ray Energies
R. Cecil* and M. Meyer
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: July 07, 2023
Published on:
Abstract
Axions are hypothetical pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons which arise from spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Peccei Quinn Symmetry, which in turn is a proposed solution to the Strong CP problem. Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are also dark matter candidates as they only interact gravitationally, and through weak coupling with the Standard Model. Weak coupling with the photon leads to the photon-ALP oscillation phenomenon which is expected to occur in the presence of astrophysical magnetic fields. For light ALPs we expect to find signatures of these oscillations at gamma-ray energies. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in large galaxy clusters are good observational candidates to attempt to observe these oscillations in the relatively strong cluster magnetic fields. In this study we model the magnetic field profile of the Virgo cluster using Messier 87 and 84 in the cluster, with the intention to probe photon-ALP oscillations. To model the magnetic field, we utilize the open source gammaALPs package framework to create a randomized magnetic field model with Gaussian turbulence. We fine tune the model parameters by calculating Faraday rotation measures along two lines of sight and constraining the magnetic field via these values. We then simulate photon-ALP oscillations for various pseudo-random realizations of the turbulent field. This model is planned to be used to search for photon-ALP oscillations in gamma rays emitted from the Messier 87 AGN. This model may also be utilized for various other studies which require the modelling of this particular magnetic field.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.417.0182
How to cite

Metadata are provided both in "article" format (very similar to INSPIRE) as this helps creating very compact bibliographies which can be beneficial to authors and readers, and in "proceeding" format which is more detailed and complete.

Open Access
Creative Commons LicenseCopyright owned by the author(s) under the term of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.