Proca Effects of Axion-Like Particle-Photon Interactions on Light Polarization in External Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Photon can mix with the axion-like particles (ALPs) on light polarization when the laser beam travels through a magnetic field. Since there is no conclusive evidence of an exact zero rest mass for the photon in various experiments and observations, we study the Proca effects in various ALP-photon regeneration experiments and develop a formalism which can be adopted to study the evolution of a massive photon in the presence of external magnetic fields. We find that the Proca effects are much smaller than the effects of the standard QCD axions. But if the masses of such particles are comparable, the Proca effects can not be neglected. Furthermore, we get the implied photon mass limit and discuss the feasibility of extending the search for the photon mass limit in this area.