2020 journal article

Coupling neutrino oscillations and simulations of core-collapse supernovae

PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 102(8).

By: C. Stapleford n, C. Froehlich & J. Kneller n 

co-author countries: United States of America πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
Source: Web Of Science
Added: October 19, 2020

At the present time even the most sophisticated, multi-dimensional simulations of core-collapse supernovae do not (self-consistently) include neutrino flavor transformation. This physics is missing despite the importance of neutrinos in the core-collapse explosion paradigm. Because of this dependence, any flavor transformation that occurs in the region between the proto-neutron star and the shock could result in major effects upon the dynamics of the explosion. We present the first hydrodynamic core-collapse supernova simulation which simultaneously includes flavor transformation of the free-streaming neutrinos in the neutrino transport. These oscillation calculations are dynamically updated and evolve self-consistently alongside the hydrodynamics. Using a $M=20\;{\rm M_{\odot}}$ progenitor, we find that while the oscillations have an effect on the neutrino emission and the heating rates, flavor transformation alone does not lead to a successful explosion of this progenitor in spherical symmetry.