Crossing into the $m_a > f_a$ Region for Leptophilic ALPs

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) are typically identified as pseudoscalars whose couplings are shift-symmetry invariant with the exception of their couplings to gauge bosons and their mass term. Additionally, the ALP mass $m_a$ is usually assumed to be (much) smaller than the ALP decay constant $f_a$. The latter condition is conservative, at best, and excludes part of the ALP parameter space that is presently viable. We revisit the interpretation of the $m_a\ll f_a$ and perform an analysis focussing on leptophilic ALPs. In particular, we explore regions of the parameter space still uninvestigated, where $m_a>f_a$, thus providing a phenomenological study of the ALP-lepton couplings complementary to the existing literature. We point out that a leptophilic ALP may explain the $-3.8\sigma$ tension in the anomalous magnetic dipole moment of the electron for the Caesium determination in a large region of the $m_a\times f_a$ parameter space, testable in the near future through studies on $\mu\to e$ conversion in nuclei.