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  • Open Access

Heavy axions can disrupt γ-ray bursts

Oindrila Ghosh*, Sunniva Jacobsen, and Tim Linden†

  • Stockholm University and The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Alba Nova, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden

  • *Contact author: oindrila.ghosh@fysik.su.se
  • †Contact author: linden@fysik.su.se
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 023033 – Published 20 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/27mq-c929

Abstract

Axionlike particles (ALPs) can be produced in the hot dense plasma of fireballs that develop in the initial stage of γ-ray burst (GRB) outflows. They can transport an enormous amount of energy away from the jet by propagating out of the fireball. The photons produced by the eventual decay of such ALPs do not reach a sufficient density to rethermalize through pair production, preventing fireball Re-emergence. Thus, the production of heavy ALPs disrupts the fireball and dims GRBs, allowing bright GRB observations to strongly constrain the existence of heavy ALPs. By adding ALP interactions to existing models of GRB fireballs, we set competitive bounds on the ALP-photon coupling down to gaγγ∼4×10−12  GeV−1 for ALPs in the mass range of 200 MeV–5 GeV.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 023033– Published 20 January, 2026
  • Received 24 February 2025
  • Accepted 3 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by Bibsam.

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