Speaker
Description
Axion-like particles, or ALPs, are popular dark matter candidates. If ALPs exist at the $\mathcal{O}(100~\mathrm{MeV})$ scale, they could play a significant role in the evolution of core-collapse supernovae, decreasing neutrino production during the collapse and producing a potentially observable time-delayed signal in terrestrial neutrino detectors. We explore the potential to directly detect ALP interactions in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a Cherenkov detector deployed at the geographic South Pole. We present a novel framework to estimate the sensitivity and discovery potential of IceCube to ALPs produced in core-collapse supernovae, covering ALP masses from 1 MeV to several hundred MeV. A key feature of this work is the explicit handling of the final-state leptons produced in ALP interactions with $^{16}$O nuclei and protons, which can generate a detectable Cherenkov signal. These processes have been integrated into a detector-level simulation, enabling realistic modeling of the detector response. Sensitivity estimates are provided for detection of the neutrino burst and time-delayed ALP signal from several core-collapse models that incorporate ALP production.