In-flight positron annihilation as a probe of feebly interacting particles

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae (SNe) provide a unique environment to study Feebly Interacting Particles (FIPs) such as Axion-Like Particles (ALPs), sterile neutrinos, and Dark Photons (DPs). This paper focuses on heavy FIPs produced in SNe, whose decay produces electrons and positrons, generating observable secondary signals during their propagation and annihilation. We focus on the In-flight Annihilation (IA) of positrons, which emerge as the most significant contribution to the resulting gamma-ray spectrum. Using data from COMPTEL and EGRET we derive the most stringent bounds on the FIP-electron couplings for heavy ALPs, sterile neutrinos, and DPs. These results strenghten existing bounds of one or two orders of magnitude, depending on the FIP model.