Self-Refraction of Supernova Neutrinos: Mixed Spectra and Three-Flavor Instabilities

Journal Article · Fri May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.104.191102· OSTI ID:21415295

Friedland, Alexander ^[1]

---

1. Theoretical Division, MS B285, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

Neutrinos in a core-collapse supernova undergo coherent flavor transformations in their own background. We explore this phenomenon during the cooling stage of the explosion. Our three-flavor calculations reveal qualitatively new effects compared to a two-flavor analysis. These effects are especially clearly seen for the inverted mass hierarchy: we find a different pattern of spectral 'swaps' in the neutrino spectrum and a novel 'mixed' spectrum for the antineutrinos. A brief discussion of the relevant physics is presented, including the instability of the two-flavor evolution trajectory, the three-flavor pattern of spectral 'swaps', and partial nonadiabaticity of the evolution.

• OSTI ID: 21415295
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 19; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.191102; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANTINEUTRINOS
COSMIC NEUTRINOS
FLAVOR MODEL
INSTABILITY
SPECTRA
SUPERNOVAE
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BINARY STARS
COMPOSITE MODELS
COSMIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FERMIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATTER
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE MODELS
QUARK MODEL
RADIATIONS
STARS
VARIABLE STARS