Supernovae as Nuclear and Particle Physics Laboratories

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2009

OSTI ID:962999

Liebendoerfer, Matthias ^[1]; Fischer, T. ^[2]; Hempel, M. ^[3]; Mezzacappa, Anthony ^[4]; Pagliara, G. ^[5]; Sagert, I. ^[3]; Schaffner-Bielich, J. ^[5]; Scheidegger, Simon ^[1]; Thielemann, Friedrich-Karl W. ^[1]; Whitehouse, Stuart ^[1]

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1. Universitat Basel, Switzerland
2. University of Basel
3. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
4. ORNL
5. Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet, Heidelberg, Germany

In the interior of supernovae, temperatures and densities exceed the range that is easily accessible by terrestrial experiments. With the improving sensitivities of neutrino and gravitational wave detectors, the chance of obtaining observations providing a deep view into the heart of a close-by supernova explosion is steadily increasing. Based on computational models, we investigate the imprint of the nuclear equation of state on the emission of neutrinos and gravitational waves. If a QCD phase transition to quark matter occurs during the immediate postbounce accretion phase, a strong second shock front is formed at a radius of order 10 km. Neutronized hadronic outer layers of the protoneutron star fall into it, are shock-heated, and lead to a rapid acceleration of the second shock wave. As soon as this shock reduces the electron degeneracy at the neutrinospheres, a sharp second neutrino burst is emitted, dominated by electron antineutrinos. Together with the abruptly increasing mean energies of {mu}- and {tau}-neutrinos, it may serve as a clear signature of the phase transition of the protoneutron star core to a more compact state.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 962999
• Resource Relation: Conference: International Conference on Particles and Nuclei (PANIC08), Eilat, Israel, 20081109, 20081114
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ELECTRON ANTINEUTRINOS
ELECTRONS
EXPLOSIONS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTORS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEI
PHYSICS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARK MATTER
SHOCK WAVES
STARS
SUPERNOVAE
supernovae:general
neutrinos
gravitational waves
stars