Axion and dark photon limits from Crab Nebula high-energy gamma rays

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been considered as potential very high energy photon emitters due to the large amount of energy released as well as the strong magnetic fields involved in their jets. However, the detection of teraelectronvolt photons is not expected from bursts beyond a redshift of z ≳ 0.1, due to their attenuation with the extragalactic background light (EBL). For these reasons, the recent observation of photons with energies of 18 and 251 TeV from GRB 221009A (z = 0.151) last 2022 October 9 has challenged what we know about the teraelectronvolt-emission mechanisms and the extragalactic background. In order to explain the teraelectronvolt observations, recent works exploring candidates of dark matter have started to appear. In this paper, we discuss the required conditions and limitations within the most plausible scenario, synchrotron self-Compton radiation in the GRB afterglow, to interpret the one 18 TeV photon observation besides the EBL. To avoid the Klein–Nishina effect, we find an improbable value of the microphysical magnetic parameter below 10−6 for a circumburst medium value >1 cm−3 (expected in the collapsar scenario). Therefore, we explore possible scenarios in terms of axion-like particles (ALPs) and dark photon mechanisms to interpret this highly energetic photon and we discuss the implications in the GRB energetics. We find that the ALPs and dark photon scenarios can explain the 18 teraelectronvolt photon but not the 251 teraelectronvolt photon.

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“…with ρ 1,1 , ρ 2,2 represent the first and second diagonal elements of the density matrix (Bi et al 2021).…”

Section: Alpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

GRB 221009A: A Light Dark Matter Burst or an Extremely Bright Inverse Compton Component?

González

Rojas

Pratts

et al. 2023

ApJ

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“…The similar analysis can be applied for the VHE gamma-ray sources in the Galaxy [122,123]. An advantage of such analysis is that the model of the Galactic magnetic field is more clear than those in the extragalactic space.…”

Section: A Searches For the Axion-photon Oscillation Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chapter 5 Dark Matter and New Physics Beyond the Standard Model with LHAASO

Bi¹

2022

Chinese Phys. C

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In order to reveal the nature of dark matter, it is crucial to detect its non-gravitational interactions with the standard model particles. The traditional dark matter searches focused on the so-called weakly interacting massive particles. However, this paradigm is strongly constrained by the null results of current experiments with high precision. Therefore there is a renewed interest of searches for heavy dark matter particles above TeV scale. The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) with large effective area and strong background rejection power is very suitable to investigate the gamma-ray signals induced by dark matter annihilation or decay above TeV scale. In this document, we review the theoretical motivations and background of heavy dark matter. We review the prospects of searching for the gamma-ray signals resulted from dark matter in the dwarf spheroidal satellites and Galactic halo for LHAASO, and present the projected sensitivities. We also review the prospects of searching for the axion-like particles, which are a kind of well motivated light pseudo-scalars, through the LHAASO measurement of the very high energy gamma-ray spectra of astrophysical sources.

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“…Considering > 100 TeV (or sub-PeV) energies, Ref. [35] searched for ALP-photon conversion-induced spectral modulation in the Tibet ASγ, HAWC, HEGRA and MAGIC observations of the Crab Nebula. Having found less than 1σ improvement of the fit with ALP-photon conversion, the authors set upper limits in the ALPs parameter space: The 95% exclusion region touches masses m a ∼ 100 − 1000 neV and g aγ ∼ 10 −10 − 10 −9 GeV −1 (cf.…”

Section: Bounds On Alp-photon Couplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling hints on axion-like-particles from high-energy gamma rays with stellar bounds

Gautham

Calore

Giannotti

et al. 2021

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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It has been recently claimed by two different groups that the spectral modulation observed in gamma rays from Galactic pulsars and supernova remnants can be due to conversion of photons into ultra-light axion-like-particles (ALPs) in large-scale Galactic magnetic fields. While we show the required best-fit photon-ALP coupling, gaγ ∼ 2 × 10-10 GeV-1, to be consistent with constraints from observations of photon-ALPs mixing in vacuum, this is in conflict with other bounds, specifically from the CAST solar axion limit, from the helium-burning lifetime in globular clusters, and from the non-observations of gamma rays in coincidence with SN 1987A. In order to reconcile these different results, we propose that environmental effects in matter would suppress the ALP production in dense astrophysical plasma, allowing to relax previous bounds and make them compatible with photon-ALP conversions in the low-density Galactic medium. If this explanation is correct, the claimed ALP signal would be on the reach of next-generations laboratory experiments such as ALPS II.

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Axion and dark photon limits from Crab Nebula high-energy gamma rays

Cited by 18 publications

References 62 publications

GRB 221009A: A Light Dark Matter Burst or an Extremely Bright Inverse Compton Component?

GRB 221009A: A Light Dark Matter Burst or an Extremely Bright Inverse Compton Component?

Chapter 5 Dark Matter and New Physics Beyond the Standard Model with LHAASO

Reconciling hints on axion-like-particles from high-energy gamma rays with stellar bounds

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