Speaker
Description
Axions are hypothetical pseudo Nabu-Goldstone bosons which arise from
spontaneous symmetry breaking in the Peccei Quinn Symmetry, which in turn is a
solution to the strong CP problem. Axions and Axion Like Particles (ALPs) are Dark
Matter candidates considring their weak gravitational interactions and weak
coupling with the Standard Model. By virtue of this coupling, theory predicts the
observation of the photon-ALP oscillation phenomenon which occurs in the
presence of magnetic fields. Active Galactic Nucluei in large galaxy clusters are
good candidates to attempt observation of these oscillations. This is due to their
strong cluster magnetic fields. Here, we attempt to use M87 in the Virgo cluster,
due to the observed strong central magnetic field of Virgo (~40 μG). To model the
magnetic field, we utilize the open source gammaALPs package framework to
create a random magnetic field model with Gaussian turbulence. We fine tune the
model parameters by simulating Faraday Rotation Measures for various random
realizations of the turbulent field. This model will be used to search for photon-ALP
oscillations in M87 using HESS and MAGIC telescope data obtained from periods of
observed flaring in the source. This model may also be utilized for various other
studies.
