Heavy sterile neutrinos and supernova explosions

TL;DR

This paper explores how heavy sterile neutrinos with ~0.2 GeV mass could influence supernova explosions by enhancing energy transport and producing detectable energetic neutrinos, with implications for future experiments.

Contribution

It introduces the potential role of heavy sterile neutrinos in supernova dynamics and discusses their detectability and testability in upcoming laboratory experiments.

Findings

Sterile neutrinos can boost supernova shock energies.

Decay of sterile neutrinos produces energetic active neutrinos.

Future experiments can probe relevant sterile neutrino parameters.

Abstract

We consider sterile neutrinos with rest masses ~0.2 GeV. Such sterile neutrinos could augment core collapse supernova shock energies by enhancing energy transport from the core to the vicinity of the shock front. The decay of these neutrinos could produce a flux of very energetic active neutrinos, detectable by future neutrino observations from a galactic supernova. The relevant range of sterile neutrino masses and mixing angles can be probed in future laboratory experiments.