Plasma-based wakefield accelerators as sources of axion-like particles

Abstract

We estimate the average flux density of minimally-coupled axion-like particles (ALPs) generated by a laser-driven plasma wakefield propagating along a constant strong magnetic field. Our calculations suggest that a terrestrial source based on this approach could generate a pulse of ALPs whose flux density is comparable to that of solar ALPs at Earth. This mechanism is optimal for ALPs with mass in the range of interest of contemporary experiments designed to detect dark matter using microwave cavities.

Keywords

• axion-like particle production
• high-intensity lasers
• nonlinear plasma waves
• strong magnetic field