Neutrino Mass Hierarchy and Stepwise Spectral Swapping of Supernova Neutrino Flavors

Journal Article · Fri Dec 14 04:00:00 EST 2007 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.99.241802· OSTI ID:21024560

Huaiyu, Duan; Fuller, George M ^[1]; Carlson, J ^[2]; Yongzhong, Qian ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0319 (United States)
2. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
3. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (United States)

We examine a phenomenon recently predicted by numerical simulations of supernova neutrino flavor evolution: the swapping of supernova {nu}{sub e} and {nu}{sub {mu}}{sub ,{tau}} energy spectra below (above) energy E{sub C} for the normal (inverted) neutrino mass hierarchy. We present the results of large-scale numerical calculations which show that in the normal neutrino mass hierarchy case, E{sub C} decreases as the assumed effective 2x2 vacuum {nu}{sub e}<-->{nu}{sub {mu}}{sub ,{tau}} mixing angle ({approx_equal}{theta}{sub 13}) is decreased. In contrast, these calculations indicate that E{sub C} is essentially independent of the vacuum mixing angle in the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy case. With a good neutrino signal from a future galactic supernova, the above results could be used to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy even if {theta}{sub 13} is too small to be measured by terrestrial neutrino oscillation experiments.

• OSTI ID: 21024560
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 99; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ELECTRON NEUTRINOS
ENERGY SPECTRA
EVOLUTION
FLAVOR MODEL
MASS
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
SIGNALS
SIMULATION
SUPERNOVAE
WEINBERG ANGLE