Basu Aritra, Goswami Jishnu, Schwarz Dominik J, Urakawa Yuko
Thüringer Landessternwarte, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany.
Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
Phys Rev Lett. 2021 May 14;126(19):191102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.191102.
We establish strong gravitational lens systems as robust probes of axionlike particles (ALPs)-a candidate for dark matter. A tiny interaction of photons with ALPs induces birefringence. Multiple images of gravitationally lensed polarized objects allow measurement of differential birefringence, alleviating systematics and astrophysical dependencies. We apply this novel method to the lens system CLASS B1152+199 and constrain the ALP-photon coupling ≤9.2×10^{-11} to 7.7×10^{-8} GeV^{-1} (95% C.L.) for an ALP mass between 3.6×10^{-21} and 4.6×10^{-18} eV. A larger sample will improve the constraints.
