Simulation of coherent nonlinear neutrino flavor transformation in the supernova environment: Correlated neutrino trajectories

By H. Duan, G. Fuller, J. Carlson, Y. Qian. 2006

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We present results of large-scale numerical simulations of the evolution of neutrino and antineutrino flavors in the region above the late-time post-supernova-explosion proto-neutron star. Our calculations are the first to allow explicit flavor evolution histories on different neutrino trajectories and to self-consistently couple flavor development on these trajectories through forward scattering-induced quantum coupling. Employing the atmospheric-scale neutrino mass-squared difference (vertical bar {delta}m{sup 2} vertical bar {approx_equal}3x10{sup -3} eV{sup 2}) and values of {theta}{sub 13} allowed by current bounds, we find transformation of neutrino and antineutrino flavors over broad ranges of energy and luminosity in roughly the 'bi-polar' collective mode. We find that this large-scale flavor conversion, largely driven by the flavor off-diagonal neutrino-neutrino forward scattering potential, sets in much closer to the proto-neutron star than simple estimates based on flavor-diagonal potentials and Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein evolution would indicate. In turn, this suggests that models of r-process nucleosynthesis sited in the neutrino-driven wind could be affected substantially by active-active neutrino flavor mixing, even with the small measured neutrino mass-squared differences.

Subfields: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/07ac2d3c6a0675cfa381f04fbcbae3af62d266c2

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