Supernova Constraints on Massive (Pseudo)Scalar Coupling to Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper derives new constraints on the coupling of massive (pseudo)scalar particles to neutrinos based on supernova observations, covering a broad mass range and highlighting the potential for future supernova detections to tighten these bounds.

Contribution

It extends previous studies by analyzing scalar masses from eV to GeV and deriving constraints from supernova neutrino emission and detection prospects.

Findings

Excluded large coupling ranges for dimension-4 scalar-neutrino interactions.

Constrained dimension-5 operator couplings for scalar masses from MeV to 100 MeV.

Future supernova neutrino observations could significantly improve these constraints.

Abstract

In this paper we derive constraints on the emission of a massive (pseudo)scalar $S$ from annihilation of neutrinos in the core of supernovae through the dimension-4 coupling $\nu\nu S$, as well as the effective dimension-5 operator $\frac{1}{\Lambda}(\nu\nu)(SS)$. While most of earlier studies have focused on massless or ultralight scalars, our analysis involves scalar with masses of order $\mathrm{eV- GeV}$ which can be copiously produced during the explosion of supernovae, whose core temperature is generally of order $T\sim \mathcal{O}(10)$ MeV. From the luminosity and deleptonization arguments regarding the observation of SN1987A, we exclude a large range of couplings $ 10^{-12} \lesssim {|g_{\alpha\beta}|}\lesssim 10^{-5}$ for the dimension-4 case, depending on the neutrino flavours involved and the scalar mass. In the case of dimension-5 operator, for a scalar mass from MeV to 100 MeV the coupling $h_{\alpha\beta}$ get constrained from $10^{-6}$ to $10^{-2}$, with the cutoff scale explicitly set $\Lambda = 1$ TeV. We finally show that if the neutrino burst of a nearby supernova explosion is detected by Super-Kamiokande and IceCube, the constraints will be largely reinforced.