Fermi Large Area Telescope as a Galactic Supernovae Axionscope

Area of Science:

• Astrophysics
• Particle Physics
• Cosmology

Background:

• Axionlike particles (ALPs) are hypothetical particles proposed to solve various astrophysical anomalies.
• Core-collapse supernovae (SNe) are powerful cosmic events that can produce exotic particles like ALPs via the Primakoff process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the sensitivity of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) to detect ALPs emitted from a Galactic core-collapse supernova.
• To explore the potential of SN observations to probe ALP properties relevant to dark matter and cosmic transparency.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a data-driven sensitivity estimate for the Fermi-LAT.
• Modeling ALP production via the Primakoff process in SN environments.
• Simulating ALP to photon conversion in the Milky Way's magnetic field.

Main Results:

• Fermi-LAT could probe photon-ALP couplings down to g_{aγ}≃2×10^{-13} GeV^{-1} for ALP masses m_{a}≲10^{-9} eV from a Galactic SN.
• These sensitivity levels surpass those achievable by next-generation laboratory experiments.
• Non-detection would improve existing bounds from SN 1987A by over an order of magnitude.

Conclusions:

• Fermi-LAT observations of Galactic core-collapse supernovae offer a unique window into the parameter space of axionlike particles.
• This approach can significantly constrain ALPs, potentially explaining dark matter and the Universe's anomalous transparency.
• Future SN observations with Fermi-LAT will provide crucial insights into fundamental physics beyond the Standard Model.