Probing Exotic Physics With Supernova Neutrinos

TL;DR

Future galactic supernova neutrino observations could significantly advance understanding of exotic physics like neutrino decay and quantum decoherence, offering new constraints beyond current experiments.

Contribution

This paper demonstrates how supernova neutrino detection can uniquely probe exotic physics scenarios not accessible to existing experiments.

Findings

Supernova neutrino signals can distinguish between decay and decoherence scenarios.

Future detectors can analyze neutronization bursts for model-independent constraints.

Supernova neutrino observations can set new bounds on exotic physics.

Abstract

Future galactic supernovae will provide an extremely long baseline for studying the properties and interactions of neutrinos. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of using such an event to constrain (or discover) the effects of exotic physics in scenarios that are not currently constrained and are not accessible with reactor or solar neutrino experiments. In particular, we focus on the cases of neutrino decay and quantum decoherence. We calculate the expected signal from a core-collapse supernova in both current and future water Cerenkov, scintillating, and liquid argon detectors, and find that such observations will be capable of distinguishing between many of these scenarios. Additionally, future detectors will be capable of making strong, model-independent conclusions by examining events associated with a galactic supernova's neutronization burst.