NuSTAR Bounds on Radiatively Decaying Particles from M82

Axions and other putative feebly interacting particles with a mass of tens to several hundreds of keVs can be produced in stellar cores with a Lorentz boost factor E_{a}/m_{a}≲10. Thus, starburst galaxies such as M82 are efficient factories of slow axions. Their decay a→γγ would produce a large flux of x-ray photons, peaking around 100 keV and spread around the Galaxy by an angle that can be relatively large. We use observations of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array mission to show that the absence of these features can constrain 30-500 keV axion masses into uncharted regions for axion-photon coupling of g_{aγ}∼10^{-10}-10^{-12} GeV^{-1}. Our argument can be applied to other heavy feebly interacting particles and astrophysical sources that are hot enough to produce them, yet cold enough to avoid large boost factors which slow down the decay.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Published
2025-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.171004
Citations
8
Primary Topic
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
14.96

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article

NuSTAR Bounds on Radiatively Decaying Particles from M82

Julia K. Vogel, Giuseppe Lucente, Damiano F. G. Fiorillo, Edoardo Vitagliano et al.
8 citations
Physical Review Letters
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
14.96
article

NuSTAR Bounds on Radiatively Decaying Particles from M82

Julia K. Vogel, Giuseppe Lucente, Damiano F. G. Fiorillo, Edoardo Vitagliano, Francisco R. Candón
article en
8 citations

Abstract

Axions and other putative feebly interacting particles with a mass of tens to several hundreds of keVs can be produced in stellar cores with a Lorentz boost factor E_{a}/m_{a}≲10. Thus, starburst galaxies such as M82 are efficient factories of slow axions. Their decay a→γγ would produce a large flux of x-ray photons, peaking around 100 keV and spread around the Galaxy by an angle that can be relatively large. We use observations of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array mission to show that the absence of these features can constrain 30-500 keV axion masses into uncharted regions for axion-photon coupling of g_{aγ}∼10^{-10}-10^{-12} GeV^{-1}. Our argument can be applied to other heavy feebly interacting particles and astrophysical sources that are hot enough to produce them, yet cold enough to avoid large boost factors which slow down the decay.

Physical Review LettersVol. 134(17)
University of Padua (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (IT), TU Dortmund University (DE), Universidad de Zaragoza (ES), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova (IT)
U.S. Department of Energy, Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Villum Fonden, Dipartimenti di Eccellenza, European Commission, European Cooperation in Science and Technology, Universidad de Zaragoza, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
14.96
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