We propose a new constraint on light (sub-GeV) particles beyond the Standard Model that can be produced inside the protoneutron star core resulting from the core-collapse supernova explosion. It is derived by demanding that the energy carried by exotic particles being transferred to the progenitor stellar envelopes not exceed the explosion energy of $\lesssim 2\times {10}^{51}\mathrm{erg}$ of observed supernovae. We show specifically that for the case of a dark photon which kinetically mixes with the SM photon and decays predominantly to an $e^{\pm }$ pair, a smaller mixing parameter of 1 order of magnitude below the well-established supernova cooling bound can be excluded. Furthermore, our bound fills the gap between the cooling bound and the region constrained by (non)observation of $\gamma$ rays produced from supernovae for dark photons lighter than $\sim 20\mathrm{MeV}$. Our result also rules out the possibility of aiding successful supernova explosions by transferring energy from the supernova core to the shock with exotic particles.

• Received 25 March 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.121305

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Published by the American Physical Society