Speaker
Description
Dark photons and axion like particles (ALPs) generically
possess couplings to the standard model photon, which can give rise to
unique spectral signatures that can be probed by ground- and space-based
telescopes, such as the Tenerife Microwave Spectrometer (TMS), and the
PIXIE/FOSSIL satellites. After a brief introduction to the theory of CMB
spectral distortions, I will discuss how resonant conversions of visible
light into dark photons or axions can lead to a measurable deviation of
the CMB away from a perfect blackbody. This work builds upon previous
results by including effects of entropy extraction on the distortion
signature, which provides to a leading order correction to the dark
photon constraints when considering pre-recombination conversions. I
will also briefly highlight other work which has aimed at using a dark
CMB to produce the radio synchrotron background anomaly, originally
detected by the ARCADE-2 experiment and a direct scientific target for
TMS.
