Is there a supernova bound on axions?

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.101.123025
• Publication Date: 2020-06-23T00:27:35Z
• Authors: Nitsan Bar; Kfir Blum; Guido D’Amico
• Keywords: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Settore PHYS-02/A - Fisica teorica delle interazioni fondamentali; FOS: Physical sciences; 530; 01 natural sciences; modelli; 520; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; metodi matematici e applicazioni; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); 0103 physical sciences; Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

We present a critical assessment of the SN1987A supernova cooling bound on axions and other light particles. Core-collapse simulations used in the literature to substantiate the bound omitted from the calculation the envelope exterior to the proto-neutron star (PNS). As a result, the only source of neutrinos in these simulations was, by construction, a cooling PNS. We show that if the canonical delayed neutrino mechanism failed to explode SN1987A, and if the pre-collapse star was rotating, then an accretion disk would form that could explain the late-time ($t\gtrsim5$ sec) neutrino events. Such accretion disk would be a natural feature if SN1987A was a collapse-induced thermonuclear explosion. Axions do not cool the disk and do not affect its neutrino output, provided the disk is optically-thin to neutrinos, as it naturally is. These considerations cast doubt on the supernova cooling bound.<br/>10 pages, 5 figure. Added discussion, match PRD version<br/>