Dimming Supernovae without Cosmic Acceleration

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  • 23 November 2001
Abstract
We present a simple model where photons propagating in extra-galactic magnetic fields can oscillate into very light axions. The oscillations may convert some of the photons departing a distant supernova into axions, making the supernova appear dimmer and hence more distant than it really is. Averaging over different configurations of the magnetic field we find that the dimming saturates at about 1/3 of the light from the supernovae at very large redshifts. This results in a luminosity-distance vs. redshift curve almost indistinguishable from that produced by the accelerating Universe, if the axion mass and coupling scale are m ~ 10^-16 eV, M ~ 4 10^11 GeV. This phenomenon may be an alternative to the accelerating Universe for explaining supernova observations.

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