Quantum field theory of axion-photon mixing and vacuum polarization

Abstract

We report on recent results obtained by analyzing axion--photon mixing in the framework of quantum field theory. We obtain corrections to the oscillation formulae and we reveal a new effect of the vacuum polarization due to the non-zero value of the vacuum energy for the component of the photon polarization mixed with the axion. The study of axion--photon mixing in curved space is also presented. Numerical analysis show that some quantum field theory effect of axion--photon mixing, in principle, could be detected experimentally.

Comments: 6 pages, 1 figure, presented at 9th International Conference DICE 2018: Spacetime - Matter - Quantum Mechanics : From discrete structures and dynamics to top-down causation