Axion-Like Particles, Cosmic Magnetic Fields and Gamma-Ray Astrophysics

Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) are predicted by many extensions of the Standard Model and give rise to characteristic dimming and polarization effects in a light beam travelling in a magnetic field. In this Letter, we demonstrate that photon-ALP mixing in cosmic magnetic fields produces an observable distortion in the energy spectra of distant gamma-ray sources (like AGN) for ranges of the ALP parameters allowed by all available constraints. The resulting effect is expected to show up in the energy band 100 MeV - 100 GeV, and so it can be serched with the upcoming GLAST mission.