Estimating the Sensitivity of IceCube to Signatures of Axion Production in a Galactic Supernova

Abstract

We describe the sensitivity of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to the creation of axions in a Type II core-collapse supernova (SN II) in the Galaxy. Axions are a light dark matter candidate, and their existence is well-motivated as a solution to the strong CP problem. In a supernova, axions behave much like neutrinos, efficiently removing energy from the explosion and cooling the system. As a result, neutrino production in an SN II is suppressed in the presence of axions, mainly affecting the seconds-long tail of the SN II neutrino light curve. The IceCube Observatory is sensitive to large numbers of MeV neutrinos from an SN II, which produce a collective rise in the hit rates of all photomultipliers in the detector. We present a shape analysis that can be used with IceCube data to discriminate the axion production scenario from standard SN II models.

Publication
Estimating the Sensitivity of IceCube to Signatures of Axion Production in a Galactic Supernova