Detecting axion-like particles using cosmic variance cancellation with CMB and radio surveys

Abstract Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) arise naturally in many extensions of the Standard Model and are among the well-motivated candidates for dark matter. In the presence of magnetic fields of galaxy clusters, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons can convert to ALPs, with the efficiency of the process governed by the cluster electron density and magnetic field profiles, the photon-ALP coupling strength ( g aγ ), as well as the frequency ( ν ) of the photon at the redshift of the cluster. The CMB blackbody spectrum suggests this resonant conversion takes place at radio wavelengths as well, following the spectral behaviour of the ALP distortion signal. This opens up a new window to search for ALPs using cosmic variance cancellation (CVC), with multi-frequency tracers of the same phenomenon in CMB photon-ALP resonant conversion. The constraints on the ALP signal ratios from different combinations of microwave and radio bands of Simons Observatory (SO) and Square Kilometer Array (SKA), can be significantly improved using CVC as compared to the case of using auto-only spectra from the two experiments. With the large number of galaxy clusters that will be observed by SO and SKA, we will be able to obtain much more information using CVC, especially for the case of low-mass ALPs with stronger signals. Using the auto-only spectra from galaxy clusters up to redshift z = 1 for inference of normalized ratio parameter, we obtain a standard deviation of 5.9 × 10 -2 for ALP mass m a = 10 -14 eV, which improves to 1.3 × 10 -2 using CVC. Not only is this method a universal probe of the ALP distortion signal using its spectral dependence, but will be able to provide a more robust consistency check, helping to identify and mitigate potential spurious signals that might arise in CMB-only analyses, based on its frequency behavior in different bands.