Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Core-collapse supernovae (SNe) provide a unique environment to study feebly interacting particles (FIPs) such as axionlike particles (ALPs), sterile neutrinos, and dark photons (DPs). This paper focuses on heavy FIPs produced in SNe, whose decay produces electrons and positrons, generating observable secondary signals during their propagation and annihilation. We focus on the in-flight annihilation of positrons, which emerge as the most significant contribution to the resulting γ -ray spectrum. Using data from COMPTEL and EGRET, we derive the most stringent bounds on the FIP-electron couplings for heavy ALPs, sterile neutrinos, and DPs. These results strengthen existing bounds by one to two orders of magnitude, depending on the FIP model.
Institutions: King's College London, Stockholm University, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, University of Salerno, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Gruppo Collegato di Salerno
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, European Commission, European Cooperation in Science and Technology, Vetenskapsrådet, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Science and Technology Facilities Council, European Research Council, Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, European Regional Development Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, H2020 European Research Council, NextGenerationEU
Awards: G1105844351, G1175115578, G1591695993, G1622782223, G210041235, G2262748287, G2335788611, G2494670923, G2554159582, G2601397997, Detecting Axion Dark Matter In The Sky And In The Lab, G282847690, G300979063, Astronomical Signals from Axions and Axion-Like Particles, G3307346093, G3321450376, G3352565690, G34346518, G3452655474, G3480869486, G3509854106, G3681454997, G3757907674, Axions: From Heaven to Earth, G4042783231, G410571670, G4184616848, G425668148, Shedding New Light on the Milky Way with TeV Electrons, G451917667, G491712853, G5080475149, From the Planck Scale to the Hubble Scale - Theoretical Physics At KCL, G5180915604, G5195188938, G5404395142, G5539308778, G5662822759, G5967599077, G598502428, G624877701, G6552740809, G7012770505, G7084143925, G712881263, G7805626310, G7863371703, G796431723, G8497050386, AION: A UK Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network, G8860138391, G929308097, G972786147
OpenAlex ID: W4409922877