Axion-like particles ( ALPs ) , predicted in theories beyond the Standard Model , can have observational effects on the transparency of the Universe to \gamma rays in the presence of magnetic fields .
In this work , we search for effects compatible with the existence of ALPs with 80 months of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope , by comparing the distributions of observed highest energy photons from sources beyond redshifts of z \geq 0.1 with theoretical predictions in the presence of ALPs .
We find no evidence for an increased \gamma -ray transparency due to ALPs and therefore we set limits on the ALPs parameters assuming a value of the intergalactic magnetic field strength of 1 nG .
Photon-ALP couplings above 10 ^ { -11 } GeV ^ { -1 } are excluded for ALP masses m _ { a } \lesssim 3.0 neV .
These limits exclude a region of the parameter space not covered by other \gamma -ray telescopes and are compatible with constraints imposed by other experiments .