Disentangling axionlike particle couplings to nucleons via a delayed signal in Super-Kamiokande from a future supernova
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In this work, we show that, if axionlike particles (ALPs) from core-collapse supernovae (SNe) couple to protons, they would produce very characteristic signatures in neutrino water Cherenkov detectors through their scattering off free protons via a p → p γ interactions. Specifically, sub-MeV ALPs would generate photons with energies ∼ 30 MeV , which could be observed by Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande as a delayed signal after a future detection of SN neutrinos. We apply this to a hypothetical neighboring SN (at a maximum distance of 100 kpc) and demonstrate that the region in the parameter space with ALP masses between 10 − 4 and 1 MeV and ALP-proton couplings in the range 3 × 10 − 6 – 4 × 10 − 5 could be probed. We argue that this new signature, combined with the one expected at ∼ 7 MeV from oxygen deexcitation, would allow us to disentangle ALP-neutron and ALP-proton couplings.
Language: English
Topic: Neutrino Physics Research
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409573042