Constraining Axion-like Particles through Multi-epoch Monitoring of Strong Gravitational Lenses

Abstract

We present new constraints on ultralight axion-like particles (ALPs) through multi-epoch measurements of differential birefringence induced due to a coupling ($g_{a\gamma}$) between the ALP and electromagnetic fields. Broadband polarimetric observations in the 2-8 GHz range of the gravitationally lensed system CLASS B1152+199 were carried out over five epochs spanning three months with a cadence of roughly 20 days, and the differential birefringence angle ($\Delta\,\theta_{a,{\rm lens}}$) between the lensed images were estimated. We also combined an archival observation that effectively increases the span to 9.5 yr to probe the effect of an oscillating ALP field imprinted as oscillating ${\Delta\,\theta_{a,{\rm lens}}}$ over time. Here we present a new technique for combining multi-epoch measurements of ${\Delta\,\theta_{a,{\rm lens}}}$ by considering the coherence of the ALP field, such that, ${\Delta\,\theta_{a,{\rm lens}}}$ over these observations are related. The time scale of coherence depends on the mass of the ALP field ($m_a$). With these new observations, we constrain $g_{a\gamma} \leq 9.0\times 10^{-12} \,\left( {\rho_{a,\text{em}}}/{20 \text{ GeV cm}^{-3}} \right)^{-1/2}\;\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ to $\leq 3.5\times 10^{-8} \,\left( {\rho_{a,\text{em}}}/{20 \text{ GeV cm}^{-3}} \right)^{-1/2}\;\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$ for $m_a$ between $1.6\times 10^{-22}\;\mathrm{eV}$ and $3.8\times 10^{-18}\;\mathrm{eV}$, where $\rho_{a,{\rm em}}$ is the density of the ALP field at emission. This improves over the constraint provided by the CERN Axion Solar Telescope by up to an order of magnitude in the $m_a$ range $1.6\times 10^{-22}\;\mathrm{eV}$ to $3\times 10^{-21}$ eV.