Probing Feebly Interacting Particles with 511 keV Line from Circumstellar Medium of Supernovae

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are intense sources of feebly interacting particles (FIPs), whose visible decays beyond the stellar envelope can generate distinct electromagnetic signals. We propose the circumstellar medium (CSM) surrounding the CCSNe progenitor as a new target for 511 keV line searches. FIPs escaping the stellar interior may decay into electron-positron pairs and inject positrons into the CSM, where they slow down and subsequently annihilate, giving rise to a 511 keV line as an electromagnetic precursor to the supernova shock breakout. Using dark photons as a benchmark, we calculate the time-dependent signal for CSM profiles motivated by SN 2023ixf and SN 2024ggi. For a Galactic supernova at 10 kpc, the projected reach of COSI and AMEGO extends beyond existing supernova limits over part of the MeV-scale dark-photon parameter space. The same FIP decays can simultaneously heat the CSM and sublimate circumstellar dust, producing a rapid spectral transition from infrared excess to optical or ultraviolet emission [Y. Cheng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 111005 (2026)]. The coincident appearance of this transition and the 511 keV line would provide a distinctive correlated multiwavelength signature of FIP decays in the dense presupernova environment.