The axion shield

We investigate the propagation of a charged particle in a spatially constant, but time dependent, pseudoscalar background. Physically this pseudoscalar background could be provided by a relic axion density. The background leads to an explicit breaking of Lorentz invariance; as a consequence the proc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics letters. B 2010-02, Vol.684 (2-3), p.101-105
Main Authors: Andrianov, A., Espriu, D., Mescia, F., Renau, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We investigate the propagation of a charged particle in a spatially constant, but time dependent, pseudoscalar background. Physically this pseudoscalar background could be provided by a relic axion density. The background leads to an explicit breaking of Lorentz invariance; as a consequence the process p→pγ is possible and the background acts as a shield against extremely energetic cosmic rays, an effect somewhat similar to the GZK cut-off effect. The effect is model independent and can be computed exactly. The hypothetical detection of the photons radiated via this mechanism would provide an indirect way of verifying the cosmological relevance of axions.
ISSN:0370-2693
1873-2445
DOI:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.01.005