Axionlike particles may explain distant high-energy cosmic photon survival

The short version

• In October 2022, Russia's Carpet detector recorded a 300-tera-electron-volt photon from a gamma-ray burst two billion light-years away.[Scientific American]
• Physicists propose that interactions with hypothetical ultralight axionlike particles allowed the energetic photon to survive its journey.[Scientific American]
• The model aligns with detections from a Chinese observatory, which observed less energetic photons from the burst one hour earlier.[Scientific American]

Key facts

• Photons from a distant gamma-ray burst reached Earth on October 9, 2022.[Scientific American]
• The Carpet detector in Russia detected a photon carrying 300 tera-electron-volts from a source two billion light-years away.[Scientific American]
• A Chinese facility detected lower-energy photons from the same event an hour before the Russian detector registered the high-energy particle.[Scientific American]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.

• This cosmic particle was never meant to reach Earth. Now scientists think they finally know why it didScientific American metered