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New feebly interacting particles would emerge from a supernova core with
100-MeV-range energies and produce $\gamma$-rays by subsequent decays. These
would contribute to the diffuse cosmic $\gamma$-ray background or would have
shown up in the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite from SN~1987A. However,
we show for the example of axion-like particles (ALPs) that, even at distances
beyond the progenitor star, the decay photons may not escape, and can instead
form a fireball, a plasma shell with $T\lesssim 1$ MeV. Thus, existing
arguments do not exclude ALPs with few 10 MeV masses and a two-photon coupling
of a few $10^{-10}~{\rm GeV}^{-1}$. However, the energy would have showed up in
sub-MeV photons, which were not seen from SN 1987A in the Pioneer Venus Orbiter
(PVO), closing again this new window. A careful re-assessment is required for
other particles that were constrained in similar ways.
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