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    Gamma-ray emission from decays of boosted nuclei in protomagnetar jets

    Sean Heston1,*, Nick Ekanger2,3,1,†, and Shunsaku Horiuchi4,1,5,‡

    • 1Center for Neutrino Physics, Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
    • 2Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
    • 3Astronomical Institute, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
    • 4Department of Physics, Institute of Science Tokyo, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
    • 5Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan

    • *Contact author: seanh125@vt.edu
    • †Contact author: ekangernj@astr.tohoku.ac.jp
    • ‡Contact author: horiuchi@vt.edu

    Phys. Rev. D 111, 123015 – Published 9 June, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qsdq-nkgx

    Abstract

    We examine the detectability of γ-ray emission originating from the radioactive decays of unstable nuclei that are synthesized in relativistic outflows launched in magnetorotational core-collapse supernovae. The observed lines have enhanced energies due to the Lorentz boosted nuclei and can also be seen until later times due to time dilation of the rest-frame half-lives. We find that instruments like e-ASTROGAM and INTEGRAL/SPI are sensitive to these boosted line emissions from hundreds of keV to tens of MeV at a distance of 10 kpc over timescales of tens of days. For favorable viewing angles, these decays can be detected to extragalactic distances for rapidly spinning protomagnetar models. On the other hand, detection for off-axis jets is challenging, even for a supernova at the Galactic Center. Measuring multiple decay lines in addition to the integrated luminosity over ∼10  days postbounce would allow for the ability to distinguish between models and shed light on central engine properties like magnetic field and spin.

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