Fermi Large Area Telescope as a Galactic Supernovae Axionscope

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 118; no. 1; p. 011103
• Main Authors: Meyer, M, Giannotti, M, Mirizzi, A, Conrad, J, Sánchez-Conde, M A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society (APS) 06-01-2017
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Cold dark matter; Coupling; Emission; Magnetic fields; Milky Way Galaxy; Supernovae; Telescopes; Universe
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.011103

In a Galactic core-collapse supernova (SN), axionlike particles (ALPs) could be emitted via the Primakoff process and eventually convert into γ rays in the magnetic field of the Milky Way. From a data-driven sensitivity estimate, we find that, for a SN exploding in our Galaxy, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) would be able to explore the photon-ALP coupling down to g_{aγ}≃2×10^{-13}  GeV^{-1} for an ALP mass m_{a}≲10^{-9}  eV. These values are out of reach of next generation laboratory experiments. In this event, the Fermi LAT would probe large regions of the ALP parameter space invoked to explain the anomalous transparency of the Universe to γ rays, stellar cooling anomalies, and cold dark matter. If no γ-ray emission were to be detected, Fermi-LAT observations would improve current bounds derived from SN 1987A by more than 1 order of magnitude.