Axions and SN 1987A: Axion trapping

Technical Report · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1990

OSTI ID:6101378

Burrows, A; Ressell, M T; Turner, M S

If an axion of mass between about 10(exp -3) and 10 eV exists, axion emission would have significantly affected the cooling of the nascent neutron star associated with SN 1987A. For an axion of mass greater than about 10(exp -2) eV axions would, like neutrinos, have a mean-free path that is smaller than the size of a neutron star, and thus would become trapped and radiated from an axion sphere. The trapping regime is treated by using numerical models of the initial cooling of a hot neutron star that incorporate a diffusion approximation for axion-energy transport. The axion opacity due to inverse nucleon-nucleon, axion bremsstrahlung is computed; and then the numerical models are used to calculate the integrated axion luminosity, the temperature of the axion sphere, and the effect of axion emission on the neutrino bursts detected by the Kamiokande II (KII) and Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven (IMB) water-Cherenkov detectors. The larger the axion mass, the stronger the trapping and the smaller the axion luminosity. The estimate of the axion mass is confirmed above which trapping is so strong that axion emission does not significantly affect the neutrino burst. Based upon the neutrino-burst duration - the most sensitive barometer of axion cooling - it is concluded that for an axion mass greater than about 3 eV axion emission would not have had a significant effect on the neutrino bursts detected by KII and IMB. It is strongly suggested that an axion with mass in the interval 10(exp -3) to 3 eV is excluded by the observation of neutrinos from SN 1987A.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab., Batavia, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6101378
• Report Number(s): N-91-13976; NASA-CR--186467; NAS--1.26:186467; FERMILAB-PUB--90/81-REV; CNN: NAGW-1340
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AXIONS
BOSONS
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
COOLING
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
DATA
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FERMIONS
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
INFORMATION
LEPTONS
LUMINOSITY
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NEUTRINOS
NEUTRON STARS
NUMERICAL DATA
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATIONS
STARS
SUPERNOVAE
THEORETICAL DATA
TRAPPING
VARIABLE STARS