  Axions or more generally axion-like particles (ALPs) are pseudo-scalar
particles predicted by many extensions of the Standard Model of particle
physics (SM) and considered as viable candidates for dark matter (DM) in the
universe. If they really exist in nature, they are expected to couple with
photons in the presence of an external electromagnetic field through a form of
the Primakoff effect. In addition, many string theory models of the early
universe motivate the existence of a homogeneous Cosmic ALP Background (CAB)
with 0.1-1 keV energies analogous to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB),
arising via the decay of string theory moduli in the very early universe. The
coupling between the CAB ALPs traveling in cosmic magnetic fields and photons
allows ALPs to oscillate into photons and vice versa. In this work, we test the
CAB model that is put forward to explain the soft X-ray excess in the Coma
cluster due to CAB ALPs conversion into photons using the M87 jet environment.
Then we demonstrate the potential of the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) jet
environment to probe low-mass ALP models, and to potentially constrain the
model proposed to better explain the Coma cluster soft X-ray excess. We find
that the overall X-ray emission for the M87 AGN requires an ALP-photon coupling
$g_{a\gamma}$ in the range of $\sim7.50\times 10^{-15}-6.56\times 10^{-14}$
GeV$^{-1}$ for ALP masses $m_a \lesssim 10^{-13}$ eV as long as the M87 jet is
misaligned by less than about 20 degrees from the line of sight. These values
are up to an order of magnitude smaller than the current best fit value on
$g_{a\gamma}\sim 2\times 10^{-13}$ GeV$^{-1}$ obtained in soft X-ray excess CAB
model for the Coma cluster. Our results cast doubt on the current limits of the
largest allowed value of $g_{a\gamma}$ and suggest a new constraint that
$g_{a\gamma}\lesssim 6.56\times 10^{-14}$ GeV$^{-1}$ when a CAB is assumed.
