AXION DECAY AND ANISOTROPY OF NEAR-IR EXTRAGALACTIC BACKGROUND LIGHT

ABSTRACT The extragalactic background light (EBL) is composed of the cumulative radiation from all galaxies and active galactic nuclei over cosmic history. In addition to point sources, the EBL also contains information from diffuse sources of radiation. The angular power spectra of the near-infrare...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2016-07, Vol.825 (2), p.104-104
Main Authors: Gong, Yan, Cooray, Asantha, Mitchell-Wynne, Ketron, Chen, Xuelei, Zemcov, Michael, Smidt, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABUNDANCE
ANISOTROPY
Astronomical models
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AXIONS
BARYONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
cosmology: theory
Decay
diffuse radiation
Galaxies
GALAXY NUCLEI
Hubble Space Telescope
Infrared
Infrared spectroscopy
large-scale structure of universe
MASS
MASS DISTRIBUTION
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLE DECAY
PHOTONS
Power spectra
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
SPACE
SPECTRA
TELESCOPES
VISIBLE RADIATION
WAVELENGTHS
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Summary:ABSTRACT The extragalactic background light (EBL) is composed of the cumulative radiation from all galaxies and active galactic nuclei over cosmic history. In addition to point sources, the EBL also contains information from diffuse sources of radiation. The angular power spectra of the near-infrared intensities could contain additional signals, and a complete understanding of the nature of the infrared (IR) background is still lacking in the literature. Here we explore the constraints that can be placed on particle decays, especially candidate dark matter (DM) models involving axions that trace DM halos of galaxies. Axions with a mass around a few electronvolts will decay via two photons with wavelengths in the near-IR band and will leave a signature in the IR background intensity power spectrum. Using recent power spectra measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, we find that the 0.6-1.6 m power spectra can be explained by axions with masses around 4 eV. The total axion abundance a 0.05, and it is comparable to the baryon density of the universe. The suggested mean axion mass and abundance are not ruled out by existing cosmological observations. Interestingly, the axion model with a mass distribution is preferred by the data, which cannot be explained by the standard quantum chromodynamics theory and needs further discussion.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/104