Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-06-09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
12 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; accepted by JCAP. Replaced to match the accepted version
Scientific paper
Discoveries of very high energy (VHE) photons from distant blazars suggest that, after correction by extragalactic background light (EBL) absorption, there is a flatness or even a turn-up in their spectra at the highest energies that cannot be easily explained by the standard framework. Here, it is shown that a possible solution to this problem is achieved by assuming the existence of axion-like particles (ALPs) with masses ~1 neV. The ALP scenario is tested making use of observations of the highest redshift blazars known in the VHE energy regime, namely 3C 279, 3C 66A, PKS 1222+216 and PG 1553+113. In all cases, better fits to the observed spectra are found when including ALPs rather than considering EBL only. Interestingly, quite similar critical energies for photon/ALP conversions are also derived, independently of the source considered.
Domínguez Adriel
Prada Francisco
Sanchez-Conde Miguel A.
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