Stripped-Envelope Supernovae for QCD Axion Detection

TL;DR

This paper proposes that Type Ibc supernovae are ideal for detecting QCD axions via gamma-ray signals resulting from axion conversion in magnetic fields, potentially probing very small axion masses.

Contribution

It identifies stripped-envelope supernovae as optimal targets for QCD axion detection and discusses the potential for gamma-ray satellites to discover axions with very small masses.

Findings

Type Ibc supernovae have larger magnetic fields and are more compact, making them better for axion detection.

Gamma-ray satellites could detect axions with masses as low as 10^{-4} eV if a Type Ibc supernova occurs nearby.

Detection could reveal axions with Peccei-Quinn scale around 10^{11} GeV.

Abstract

QCD axions would be copiously produced in the proto-neutron star formed in a core-collapse supernova (SN). After escaping, they would convert into gamma rays in the Galactic magnetic field and, as recently shown, in that of the progenitor star itself. Here, we show that Type Ibc SNe -- whose progenitors have lost their hydrogen or even helium envelopes -- are the optimal targets for this search. The stripped progenitors are much more compact, and they show larger magnetic fields than both red and blue supergiants, the progenitors of Type IIP/L SNe. If the next galactic SN is of Type Ibc, Fermi-LAT or a similar gamma-ray satellite might be able to discover the QCD axion down to masses as small as $m_a\simeq 10^{-4}\,\rm eV$ (Peccei-Quinn scale $f_a\simeq 10^{11} \,\rm GeV$).