Axion–photon coupling in the limit of photon statistics

It has been shown that interactions between photons and exotic fields, e.g. axions and axion like particles, may result in periodic splitting known as bifurcation. Some of the measurable effects have been simulated and reported in previous papers, including the central depletion of photons due to splitting and the shifting of the beam energy due to higher order terms. This paper takes a look at what happens when the limit of photon statistics is reached. Similar to how shot noise arises, additional chaotic movement of the beam center occurs due to the quantum nature of light and axion–photon coupling. Most significantly, the movement scales as first order with the axion–photon coupling constant.