Effect of collective neutrino flavor oscillations on vp-process nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This paper investigates how collective neutrino flavor oscillations influence vp-process nucleosynthesis in supernovae, revealing significant effects on the production of light p-nuclei up to mass 108.

Contribution

It introduces a study of the impact of collective neutrino flavor oscillations on vp-process nucleosynthesis, highlighting their effect on the synthesis of light p-nuclei.

Findings

Neutrino oscillations significantly affect p-nuclei production.

The synthesis of p-nuclei up to A=108 is highly sensitive to oscillations.

Spectral swaps alter the neutron supply critical for nucleosynthesis.

Abstract

The vp process is a primary nucleosynthesis process which occurs in core collapse supernovae. An essential role in this process is being played by electron antineutrinos. They generate, by absorption on protons, a supply of neutrons which, by (n,p) reactions, allow to overcome waiting point nuclei with rather long beta-decay and proton-capture lifetimes. The synthesis of heavy elements by the vp process depends sensitively on the \bar{\nu}_e luminosity and spectrum. As has been shown recently, the latter are affected by collective neutrino flavor oscillations which can swap the \bar{\nu}_e and \bar{\nu}_{\mu,\tau} spectra above a certain split energy. Assuming such a swap scenario, we have studied the impact of collective neutrino flavor oscillations on the vp-process nucleosynthesis. Our results show that the production of light p-nuclei up to mass number A=108 is very sensitive to collective neutrino oscillations.