Light-shining-through-wall searches for axion-like particles using laser-driven plasma

Not all key questions in fundamental physics can be readily investigated using conventional high-energy particle collider technology, and modern developments in laser-plasma-based accelerator science offer a new perspective in the quest for physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular, alternative methods are required to search for novel low-mass particles with very weak coupling to ordinary matter. The QCD axion is probably the most celebrated example of such a particle; although it was introduced to explain the lack of CP violation in the strong interaction [1, 2, 3], interest in it as a cold dark matter candidate developed soon after it was proposed [4, 5, 6] [.....]