Flavor instabilities in the neutrino line model

Journal Article · Wed May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Physics Letters. B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.05.057· OSTI ID:1244108

Duan, Huaiyu  ^[1]; Shalgar, Shashank ^[1]

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

A dense neutrino medium can experience collective flavor oscillations through nonlinear neutrino-neutrino refraction. To make this multi-dimensional flavor transport problem more tractable, all existing studies have assumed certain symmetries (e.g., the spatial homogeneity and directional isotropy in the early universe) to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. In this article we show that, if both the directional and spatial symmetries are not enforced in the neutrino line model, collective oscillations can develop in the physical regimes where the symmetry-preserving oscillation modes are stable. Our results suggest that collective neutrino oscillations in real astrophysical environments (such as core-collapse supernovae and black-hole accretion discs) can be qualitatively different from the predictions based on existing models in which spatial and directional symmetries are artificially imposed.

• Research Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0008142
• OSTI ID: 1244108
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1454416
• Journal Information: Physics Letters. B, Journal Name: Physics Letters. B Vol. 747 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0370-2693
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: Netherlands
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
Neutrino oscillations
Dense neutrino medium
Spontaneous symmetry breaking