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.
%0 Generic
%1 bar2019there
%A Bar, Nitsan
%A Blum, Kfir
%A D'Amico, Guido
%D 2019
%K tifr
%T Is there a supernova bound on axions?
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1907.05020
%X 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.
@misc{bar2019there,
abstract = {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.},
added-at = {2019-07-12T06:30:39.000+0200},
author = {Bar, Nitsan and Blum, Kfir and D'Amico, Guido},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2d34adba97e33531649317c418a5710b3/citekhatri},
description = {Is there a supernova bound on axions?},
interhash = {be8d04b487996fbe55e99404a7904d2f},
intrahash = {d34adba97e33531649317c418a5710b3},
keywords = {tifr},
note = {cite arxiv:1907.05020Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure},
timestamp = {2019-07-12T06:30:39.000+0200},
title = {Is there a supernova bound on axions?},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1907.05020},
year = 2019
}