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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02096 |
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| _version_ | 1866929505342324736 |
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| author | Adachi, Shunsuke Adkins, Tylor Baccigalupi, Carlo Chinone, Yuji Crowley, Kevin T. Errard, Josquin Fabbian, Giulio Feng, Chang Fujino, Takuro Hasegawa, Masaya Hazumi, Masashi Jeong, Oliver Kaneko, Daisuke Keating, Brian Kusaka, Akito Lee, Adrian T. Lonappan, Anto I. Minami, Yuto Murata, Masaaki Piccirillo, Lucio Reichardt, Christian L. Siritanasak, Praween Spisak, Jacob Takakura, Satoru Teply, Grant P. Yamada, Kyohei |
| author_facet | Adachi, Shunsuke Adkins, Tylor Baccigalupi, Carlo Chinone, Yuji Crowley, Kevin T. Errard, Josquin Fabbian, Giulio Feng, Chang Fujino, Takuro Hasegawa, Masaya Hazumi, Masashi Jeong, Oliver Kaneko, Daisuke Keating, Brian Kusaka, Akito Lee, Adrian T. Lonappan, Anto I. Minami, Yuto Murata, Masaaki Piccirillo, Lucio Reichardt, Christian L. Siritanasak, Praween Spisak, Jacob Takakura, Satoru Teply, Grant P. Yamada, Kyohei |
| contents | The Crab Nebula, also known as Tau A, is a polarized astronomical source at millimeter wavelengths. It has been used as a stable light source for polarization angle calibration in millimeter-wave astronomy. However, it is known that its intensity and polarization vary as a function of time at a variety of wavelengths. Thus, it is of interest to verify the stability of the millimeter-wave polarization. If detected, polarization variability may be used to better understand the dynamics of Tau~A, and for understanding the validity of Tau~A as a calibrator. One intriguing application of such observation is to use it for the search of axion-like particles (ALPs). Ultralight ALPs couple to photons through a Chern-Simons term, and induce a temporal oscillation in the polarization angle of linearly polarized sources. After assessing a number of systematic errors and testing for internal consistency, we evaluate the variability of the polarization angle of the Crab Nebula using 2015 and 2016 observations with the 150 GHz POLARBEAR instrument. We place a median 95% upper bound of polarization oscillation amplitude $A < 0.065^\circ$ over the oscillation frequencies from $0.75~\mathrm{year}^{-1}$ to $0.66~\mathrm{hour}^{-1}$. Assuming that no sources other than ALP are causing Tau A's polarization angle variation, that the ALP constitutes all the dark matter, and that the ALP field is a stochastic Gaussian field, this bound translates into a median 95% upper bound of ALP-photon coupling $g_{aγγ} < 2.16\times10^{-12}\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}\times(m_a/10^{-21} \mathrm{eV})$ in the mass range from $9.9\times10^{-23} \mathrm{eV}$ to $7.7\times10^{-19} \mathrm{eV}$. This demonstrates that this type of analysis using bright polarized sources is as competitive as those using the polarization of cosmic microwave background in constraining ALPs. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_02096 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Exploration of the polarization angle variability of the Crab Nebula with POLARBEAR and its application to the search for axion-like particles Adachi, Shunsuke Adkins, Tylor Baccigalupi, Carlo Chinone, Yuji Crowley, Kevin T. Errard, Josquin Fabbian, Giulio Feng, Chang Fujino, Takuro Hasegawa, Masaya Hazumi, Masashi Jeong, Oliver Kaneko, Daisuke Keating, Brian Kusaka, Akito Lee, Adrian T. Lonappan, Anto I. Minami, Yuto Murata, Masaaki Piccirillo, Lucio Reichardt, Christian L. Siritanasak, Praween Spisak, Jacob Takakura, Satoru Teply, Grant P. Yamada, Kyohei Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics The Crab Nebula, also known as Tau A, is a polarized astronomical source at millimeter wavelengths. It has been used as a stable light source for polarization angle calibration in millimeter-wave astronomy. However, it is known that its intensity and polarization vary as a function of time at a variety of wavelengths. Thus, it is of interest to verify the stability of the millimeter-wave polarization. If detected, polarization variability may be used to better understand the dynamics of Tau~A, and for understanding the validity of Tau~A as a calibrator. One intriguing application of such observation is to use it for the search of axion-like particles (ALPs). Ultralight ALPs couple to photons through a Chern-Simons term, and induce a temporal oscillation in the polarization angle of linearly polarized sources. After assessing a number of systematic errors and testing for internal consistency, we evaluate the variability of the polarization angle of the Crab Nebula using 2015 and 2016 observations with the 150 GHz POLARBEAR instrument. We place a median 95% upper bound of polarization oscillation amplitude $A < 0.065^\circ$ over the oscillation frequencies from $0.75~\mathrm{year}^{-1}$ to $0.66~\mathrm{hour}^{-1}$. Assuming that no sources other than ALP are causing Tau A's polarization angle variation, that the ALP constitutes all the dark matter, and that the ALP field is a stochastic Gaussian field, this bound translates into a median 95% upper bound of ALP-photon coupling $g_{aγγ} < 2.16\times10^{-12}\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}\times(m_a/10^{-21} \mathrm{eV})$ in the mass range from $9.9\times10^{-23} \mathrm{eV}$ to $7.7\times10^{-19} \mathrm{eV}$. This demonstrates that this type of analysis using bright polarized sources is as competitive as those using the polarization of cosmic microwave background in constraining ALPs. |
| title | Exploration of the polarization angle variability of the Crab Nebula with POLARBEAR and its application to the search for axion-like particles |
| topic | Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02096 |