Searching for axionlike particles from core-collapse supernovae with Fermi LAT's low-energy technique

Light axionlike particles (ALPs) are expected to be abundantly produced in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), resulting in a similar to 10-second long burst of ALPs. These particles subsequently undergo conversion into gamma rays in external magnetic fields to produce a long gamma-ray burst (GRB) with a characteristic spectrum peaking in the 30-100-MeV energy range. At the same time, CCSNe are invoked as progenitors of ordinary long GRBs, rendering it relevant to conduct a comprehensive search for ALP spectral signatures using the observations of long GRBs with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LIT). We perform a data-driven sensitivity analysis to determine CCSN distances for which a detection of an ALP signal is possible with the LAT's low-energy technique which, in contrast to the standard LAT analysis, allows for a a larger effective area for energies down to 30 MeV. Assuming an ALP mass m(a) less than or similar to 10(-10) eV and ALP-photon coupling g(a gamma) = 5.3 x 10(-12) GeV-1, values considered and deduced in ALP searches from SN1987A, we find that the distance limit ranges from similar to 0.5 to similar to 10 Mpc, depending on the sky location and the CCSN progenitor mass. Furthermore, we select a candidate sample of 24 GRBs and carry out a model comparison analysis in which we consider different GRB spectral models with and without an ALP signal component. We find that the inclusion of an ALP contribution does not result in any statistically significant improvement of the fits to the data. We discuss the statistical method used in our analysis and the underlying physical assumptions, the feasibility of setting upper limits on the ALP-photon coupling, and give an outlook on future telescopes in the context of ALP searches.

Automated summary

Light axionlike particles (ALPs) are expected to be abundantly produced in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), resulting in a burst of ALPs which then convert into gamma rays. Observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope can be used to conduct a comprehensive search for ALP spectral signatures at different distances. However, analysis of 24 gamma ray bursts did not show any statistically significant improvement when considering ALP contributions.