Quantum axion production by a laser wakefield accelerator

Aleksiejuk, Mark and Burton, David (2025) Quantum axion production by a laser wakefield accelerator. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. ISSN 0741-3335 (In Press)

Text (IOP_quantum_flux_axion)
IOP_quantum_flux_axion.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (147kB)

Abstract

Axions are hypothetical, very weakly interacting, low-mass particles that remain popular candidates for dark matter. Most of the effort in the search for axions has focussed on astrophysical sources, although the evolution of high-power laser facilities has generated significant interest in "light shining through wall" experiments where axions are produced in the laboratory. With this in mind, a lower bound on the average number flux of axions produced by a laser wakefield accelerator is calculated from the perspective of quantum theory. The new result is better behaved for very low mass axions than the estimate of the average number flux obtained previously using entirely classical considerations. In particular, it converges in the limit as the axion mass tends to zero. Further calculation suggests the number flux of axions should be tolerable at practical laboratory-scale distances from the source when accounting for dispersion.