Supernova Constraint on Self-Interacting Dark Sector Particles

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dark sector self-interactions affect supernova constraints on light dark particles, revealing that strong self-trapping can evade existing bounds from SN1987a observations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that dark sector self-interactions can cause self-trapping, significantly altering supernova bounds on light dark particles and expanding the viable parameter space.

Findings

Self-interactions lead to self-trapping of dark particles.

Supernova bounds can be evaded for certain parameter ranges.

Self-trapping mechanism applies to other stellar bounds.

Abstract

We examine the constraints on sub-GeV dark sector particles set by the proto-neutron star cooling associated with the core-collapse supernova event SN1987a. Considering explicitly a dark photon portal dark sector model, we compute the relevant interaction rates of dark photon ($A'$) and dark fermion ($\chi$) with the Standard Model particles as well as their self-interaction inside the dark sector. We find that even with a small dark sector fine structure constant $\alpha_D\ll 1$, dark sector self-interactions can easily lead to their own self-trapping. This effect strongly limits the energy luminosity carried away by dark sector particles from the supernova core and thus drastically affects the parameter space that can be constrained by SN1987a. We consider specifically two mass ratios $m_{A'}=3m_\chi$ and $3m_{A'}=m_\chi$ which represent scenarios where the decay of $A'$ to $\chi\bar\chi$ is allowed or not. We show that SN1987a can only place bounds on the dark sector when $\alpha_D\lesssim 10^{-15}$ ($10^{-7}$) for the former (latter) for $m_\chi\lesssim 20$ MeV. Furthermore, this evades the supernova bounds on the widely-examined dark photon parameter space completely if $\alpha_D\lesssim 10^{-7}$ for the former, while lifts the bounds when $\alpha_D\lesssim 10^{-7}$ if $m_\chi\lesssim 100$ MeV. Our findings thus imply that the existing supernova bounds on light dark particles can be generally evaded by a similar self-trapping mechanism. This also implies that non-standard strongly self-interacting neutrino is not consistent with the SN1987a observation. Same effects can also take place for other known stellar bounds on dark sector particles.