Searching for Solar-Basin Axionlike-Particle Decay with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) bound in the solar gravitational field form the so-called ALP solar-basin. Since the two-photon decay of non-relativistic particles is approximately isotropic, this population can be searched for using observations in the anti-solar direction. In this work, we propose a search strategy for narrow decay-line signals from the ALP solar basin using \textit{XMM-Newton} blank-sky observations (XMM-BSOs) stacked spectra data taken in directions opposite to the Sun. By jointly fitting the signal and background model, we obtain limits on $g_{a\gamma\gamma}^{95}$ in the mass range $m_a=1.4\text{--}16~{\rm keV}$, with typical sensitivities of $g_{a\gamma\gamma}\sim10^{-10}\text{--}10^{-11}~{\rm GeV}^{-1}$. We have implemented the first anti-solar search for the solar basin, demonstrating that this strategy can exploit the stacked exposure of a large number of X-ray observations and provide a scalable analysis framework for future searches.