Low-Energy Supernovae Severely Constrain Radiative Particle Decays

Area of Science:

• Astrophysics
• Particle Physics
• Cosmology

Background:

• Massive star collapse forms hot, dense cores that can produce feebly interacting particles.
• Radiative decays of these particles can deposit energy in surrounding material, observable in supernovae.

Purpose of the Study:

• To constrain the properties of hypothetical feebly interacting particles, specifically axionlike particles (ALPs).
• To utilize low-energy supernovae as sensitive calorimeters for particle decay energy deposition.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a supernova (SN) population with particularly low explosion energies.
• Identification of these SNe as low-luminosity events with low ejecta velocities and low ^{56}Ni masses.
• Using SN energy deposition limits to constrain particle decay models.

Main Results:

• Low-energy SNe limit energy deposition from particle decays to < 0.1 Bethe (10^51 erg).
• Exclusion of ALP-photon couplings (G_{aγγ}) in the range 10^{-10}-10^{-8} GeV^{-1} for 1-500 MeV mass ALPs.

Conclusions:

• This study provides novel constraints on axionlike particle properties using astrophysical observations.
• Low-energy supernovae serve as valuable tools for probing fundamental physics beyond the Standard Model.