In situ axion generation and detection in laser-plasma wakefield interaction

Abstract

We propose a laser-plasma wakefield interaction based scheme for in situ axion generation and detection through the Primakoff process. Strong electromagnetic fields ($\gtrsim 10^{11}$\,V/m) in the wakefield can enhance axion production rates by 2 orders of magnitude compared to conventional light-shining-through-a-wall experiments. By replacing the axion generation stage with laser-wakefield interaction, the axion-photon coupling constraints can achieve the level of $\gagg \sim 10^{-10}\,\text{GeV}^{-1}$ for axion mass less than 0.1\,meV. Besides, the generated axions can convert back into photons in the background fields, leading to axion-regenerated electromagnetic fields (AREM) with unique polarization, frequency, and transverse modes. This provides a new promising way to search axions by detecting the filtered AREM fields from the background laser and plasma fields.