New constraints for heavy axion-like particles from supernovae
  We derive new constraints on the coupling of heavy pseudoscalar (axion-like)
particles to photons, based on the gamma ray flux expected from the decay of
these particles into photons. After being produced in the supernova core, these
heavy axion-like particles would escape and a fraction of them would decay into
photons before reaching the Earth. We have calculated the expected flux on
Earth of these photons from the supernovae SN 1987A and Cassiopeia A and
compared our results to data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This analysis
provides strong constraints on the parameter space for axion-like particles.
For a particle mass of 100 MeV, we find that the Peccei-Quinn constant, f_a,
must be greater than about 10^{15} GeV. Alternatively, for fa=10^{12} GeV, we
exclude the mass region between approximately 100 eV and 1 GeV.
