Low-Energy Supernovae Severely Constrain Radiative Particle Decays

Abstract

The hot and dense core formed in the collapse of a massive star is a powerful source of hypothetical feebly-interacting particles such as sterile neutrinos, dark photons, axion-like particles (ALPs), and others. Radiative decays such as $a\to 2\gamma$ deposit this energy in the surrounding material if the mean free path is less than the radius of the progenitor star. For the first time, we use a supernova (SN) population with particularly low explosion energies as the most sensitive calorimeters to constrain this possibility. These SNe are observationally identified as low-luminosity events with low ejecta velocities and low masses of ejected ${}^{56}$Ni. Their low energies limit the energy deposition from particle decays to less than about 0.1 B, where $1\mathrm{B}(\mathrm{bethe})=10^{51}\mathrm{erg}$. For 1-500 MeV-mass ALPs, this generic argument excludes ALP-photon couplings $G_{a\gamma \gamma }$ in the $10^{-10}$-$10^{-8}{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}$ range.

5+3 pages, 2+2 figures. Minor modifications added; version published in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (16)

• Revisiting the SN1987A gamma-ray limit on ultralight axion-like particles
• Revised constraints and Belle II sensitivity for visible and invisible axion-like particles
• SN 2005cs in M51 II. Complete Evolution in the Optical and the Near-Infrared
• Neutrino-driven supernova of a low-mass iron-core progenitor boosted by three-dimensional turbulent convection
• Three-Dimensional Supernova Explosion Simulations of 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, and 13-M${}_{\odot }$ Stars
• Three-dimensional Models of Core-collapse Supernovae From Low-mass Progenitors With Implications for Crab
• Dynamics of shock propagation and nucleosynthesis conditions in O-Ne-Mg core supernovae
• On The Intrinsic Diversity of Type II-Plateau Supernovae
• Inferring Explosion Properties from Type II-Plateau Supernova Light Curves
• Emission line models for the lowest-mass core collapse supernovae. I: Case study of a 9 $M_{\odot }$ one-dimensional neutrino-driven explosion
• Progenitors of low-luminosity Type II-Plateau supernovae
• Supernova bounds on axion-like particles coupled with nucleons and electrons
• 511 keV line constraints on feebly interacting particles from supernovae
• Synthetic observables for electron-capture supernovae and low-mass core collapse supernovae
• Hydrodynamic Simulations of Electron-capture Supernovae: Progenitor and Dimension Dependence
• Shock Revival in Core-collapse Supernovae Assisted by Heavy Axion-like Particles

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Updated constraints on axion-like particles from temporal information in supernova SN1987A gamma-ray data
• The Irreducible Axion Background
• Strong Supernova 1987A Constraints on Bosons Decaying to Neutrinos
• Strong supernovae bounds on ALPs from quantum loops
• Proto-neutron stars as cosmic factories for massive axion-like-particles
• Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis
• Radiative transfer in stars by feebly interacting bosons
• Nonresonant Searches for Axion-Like Particles in Vector Boson Scattering Processes at the LHC
• Neutron star observations of pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter
• Constraining heavy axion-like particles by energy deposition in Globular Cluster stars
• Detecting Axion-Like Particles with Primordial Black Holes
• ALP Searches at the LHC: FASER as a Light Shining through Walls Experiment
• Probing high-energy solar axion flux with a large scintillation neutrino detector
• Axion-Like Particle Production at Beam Dump Experiments with Distinct Nuclear Excitation Lines
• BSM Targets at a "Target-less DUNE"
• Searching for Muonphilic Dark Sectors with Proton Beams
• New bounds on axion-like particles from MicroBooNE
• Muon g-2 and a Geocentric New Field
• Light Curves and Event Rates of Axion Instability Supernovae
• Axion Couplings in Gauged $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ Extensions of the Standard Model
• Axion signatures from supernova explosions through the nucleon electric-dipole portal