Photon & Axion Oscillation In a Magnetized Medium: A Covariant Treatment

Understand

Pseudoscalar particles, with almost zero mass and very weak coupling to the visible matter, arise in many extensions of the standard model of particle physics.

• Their mixing with photons in the presence of an external magnetic field leads to many interesting astrophysical and cosmological consequences.
• This mixing depends on the medium properties, the momentum of the photon and the background magnetic field.
• Here we give a general treatment of pseudoscalar-photon oscillations in a background magnetic field, taking the Faraday term into account.