Effect of Collective Flavor Oscillations on the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background

TL;DR

This paper investigates how collective neutrino flavor oscillations inside supernovae influence the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) and assesses the detectability of these effects in upcoming large-scale neutrino detectors.

Contribution

It provides a re-analysis of DSNB detection prospects considering collective oscillation effects, highlighting potential to determine neutrino parameters like mass hierarchy.

Findings

Next-generation detectors can observe DSNB fluxes.

Collective oscillations significantly alter the expected neutrino fluxes.

Potential to determine neutrino mass hierarchy even with small theta_{13}.

Abstract

Collective flavor oscillations driven by neutrino-neutrino self interaction inside core-collapse supernovae have now been shown to bring drastic changes in the resultant neutrino fluxes. This would in turn significantly affect the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB), created by all core-collapse supernovae that have exploded in the past. In view of these collective effects, we re-analyze the potential of detecting the DSNB in currently running and planned large-scale detectors meant for detecting both electron neutrinos and antineutrinos. The next generation detectors should be able to observe DSNB fluxes. Under certain conducive conditions, one could learn about neutrino parameters. For instance, it might be possible to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, even if theta_{13} is almost zero.