English

New bounds on millicharged particles from cosmology

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

Particles with millicharge q and sub-eV mass can be produced in photon-photon collisions, distorting the energy spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background. We derive the conservative bound q < 10^-7 e (as well as model-dependent bounds two orders of magnitude stronger), incompatible with proposed interpretations of the PVLAS anomaly based on millicharged production or on millicharged-mediated axion-like couplings.

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0703144,
  title  = {New bounds on millicharged particles from cosmology},
  author = {Alessandro Melchiorri and Antonello Polosa and Alessandro Strumia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0703144},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

7 pages, 2 figures. Final version

R2 v1 2026-07-22T14:14:45.397Z