#AthenaNuggets: Searching for String Theory with Athena

One prediction generic to different string theory scenarios is the existence of ultra-light axion-like particles (ALPs). These can act as Dark Matter or Dark Energy and may have striking astrophysical signatures. In a background magnetic field, ALPs and photons can interconvert.

Athena observations of point sources shining through galaxy clusters will provide us with an extraordinary opportunity to search for ALPs, as Francesca Chadha-Day explains to us in #AthenaNuggets 53. Thanks to its exceptional effective area and energy resolution, Athena will enable us to considerably constrain the properties of ALPs, or even discover them. Such a discovery would represent a profound knowledge of the universe and could even be a gateway to understanding quantum gravity.