The ANITA experiment has recently observed two anomalous events emerging from well below the horizon. Even though they are consistent with tau cascades, a high energy Standard Model or Beyond the Standard Model explanation is challenging and in tension with other experiments. We study under which conditions the reflection of generic radio pulses can reproduce these signals. We propose that these pulses can be resonantly produced in the ionosphere via axion-photon conversion. This naturally explains the direction and polarization of the events and avoids other experimental bounds.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1905.10372,
title = {Looking at the axionic dark sector with ANITA},
author = {Ivan Esteban and Jacobo Lopez-Pavon and Ivan Martinez-Soler and Jordi Salvado},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.10372},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
New figure added (Fig. 5): estimation of ALP mass, coupling and corrected value of burst density, consistent with ANITA and present ALP experimental bounds. Estimation of ALP burst rate reaching the Earth added. Matches version accepted by EPJC