Search for Axionlike-Particle-Induced Prompt γ-Ray Emission from Extragalactic Core-Collapse Supernovae with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Manuel Meyer; <i>Fermi</i>-LAT Collaboration; Tanja Petrushevska

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.231101

Search for Axionlike-Particle-Induced Prompt γ-Ray Emission from Extragalactic Core-Collapse Supernovae with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Phys Rev Lett. 2020 Jun 12;124(23):231101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.231101.

Authors

Manuel Meyer¹; <i>Fermi</i>-LAT Collaboration; Tanja Petrushevska²

Affiliations

¹ Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erwin-Rommel-Str. 1, 91058 Erlangen, Germany and W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
² Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 11c, 5270 Ajdovščina, Slovenia.

PMID: 32603156
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.231101

Abstract

During a core-collapse supernova (SN), axionlike particles (ALPs) could be produced through the Primakoff process and subsequently convert into γ rays in the magnetic field of the Milky Way. We do not find evidence for such a γ-ray burst in observations of extragalactic SNe with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). The SN explosion times are estimated from optical light curves and we find a probability of about ∼90% that the LAT observed at least one SN at the time of the core collapse. Under the assumption that at least one SN was contained within the LAT field of view, we exclude photon-ALP couplings ≳2.6×10^{-12} GeV^{-1} for ALP masses m_{a}≲3×10^{-10} eV, improving previous limits from SN1987A by a factor of 2.