Time-delayed gamma-ray signatures of heavy axions from core-collapse supernovae

TL;DR

This paper conducts the most sensitive search to date for heavy axions from supernovae using Fermi-LAT data, setting new constraints on axion properties by analyzing gamma-ray signatures from four recent supernovae.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive search for heavy axions from supernovae with Fermi-LAT, improving flux sensitivity by five orders of magnitude for long-lived axions and constraining new parameter space.

Findings

No evidence for heavy axions was found.

The study excludes large regions of previously-unexplored axion parameter space.

Fermi-LAT data significantly improves detection sensitivity for long-lived axions.

Abstract

Heavy axions that couple to both quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics with masses on the order of MeV - GeV and high-scale decay constants in excess of $\sim$$10^8$ GeV may arise generically in e.g. axiverse constructions. In this work we provide the most sensitive search to-date for the existence of such heavy axions using Fermi-LAT data towards four recent supernovae (SN): Cas A, SN1987A, SN2023ixf, and SN2024ggi. We account for heavy axion production in the proto-neutron-star cores through nuclear and electromagnetic processes and then the subsequent decay of the axions into photons. While previous works have searched for gamma-rays from SN1987A using the Solar Maximum Mission that observed SN1987A during the SN itself, we show that using Fermi Large Area Telescope data provides an approximately five orders of magnitude improvement in flux sensitivity for axions with lifetimes larger than around 10 years. We find no evidence for heavy axions and exclude large regions of previously-unexplored parameter space.