Cosmic acceleration vs axion-photon mixing

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  • 21 November 2003
Abstract
Axion-photon mixing has been proposed as an alternative to acceleration as the explanation for supernovae dimming. We point out that the loss of photons due to this mixing will induce a strong asymmetry between the luminosity, d_L(z), and angular-diameter distance, d_A(z), since the latter is unaffected by mixing. In a first search for such asymmetry we introduce an amplitude, A, such that A=1 if no photons are lost and A = 0.81 if axion-photon mixing occurs. The best fit to a subset of SNIa and radio galaxy data at z > 0.5 is A=0.97 +/- 0.17 (1-sigma). This same argument limits the attenuation of light from supernovae due to dust. We show that future d_L and d_A data from SNAP and galaxy surveys such as DEEP2 and KAOS will detect or rule out mixing at more than 4-sigma, almost independently of the dark energy dynamics. Finally we discuss the constraints from the near maximal polarisation of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB021206. Since mixing reduces the polarisation of distant sources, future observations of high redshift GRBs will provide orthogonal constraints on axion-photon mixing and related scenarios.

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