Supernova bounds on the dark photon using its electromagnetic decay

Demos Kazanas, Rabindra N. Mohapatra, Shmuel Nussinov, Vigdor L. Teplitz, Yongchao Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Scopus citations

Abstract

The hypothetical massive dark photon (γ') which has kinetic mixing with the SM photon can decay electromagnetically to e+e- pairs if its mass m exceeds 2me, and otherwise into three SM photons. These decays yield cosmological and supernovae associated signatures. We briefly discuss these signatures, particularly in connection with the supernova SN1987A, and delineate the extra constraints that arise on the mass and mixing parameter of the dark photon. In particular, we find that for dark photon mass mγ' in the 5-20 MeV range arguments based on supernova 1987A observations lead to a bound on ε which is about 300 times stronger than the presently existing bounds based on energy loss arguments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)17-29
Number of pages13
JournalNuclear Physics B
Volume890
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2015

Funding

FundersFunder number
Center for Future High Energy Physics
Fermi GI
National Science FoundationPHY-1315155
National Science Foundation
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
College of Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
National Natural Science Foundation of China11105004
National Natural Science Foundation of China

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