Constraints on Massive Axion-Like Particles from X-ray Observations of NGC1275

Understand

If axion-like particles (ALPs) exist, photons can convert to ALPs on passage through regions containing magnetic fields.

• The magnetised intracluster medium of large galaxy clusters provides a region that is highly efficient at ALP-photon conversion.
• X-ray observations of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) located within galaxy clusters can be used to search for and constrain ALPs, as photon-ALP conversion would lead to energy-dependent quasi-sinusoidal modulations in the X-ray spectrum of an AGN.
• We use Chandra observations of the central AGN of the Perseus Cluster, NGC1275, to place bounds on massive ALPs up to m_a ~ 10^-11 eV, extending previous work that used this dataset to constrain massless ALPs.