Halo Modification of a Supernova Neutronization Neutrino Burst

TL;DR

This paper presents the first self-consistent calculation showing how scattered neutrino halos significantly alter flavor evolution in supernovae, affecting the final neutrino states and introducing new flavor swap distortions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel self-consistent method to analyze the impact of neutrino halos on flavor evolution in supernovae, a previously unexplored aspect.

Findings

Halo neutrinos cause qualitative and quantitative changes in neutrino flavor states.

Halo neutrinos induce a new distortion in the neutrino flavor swap.

Results motivate future multidimensional, composition-dependent studies.

Abstract

We give the first self-consistent calculation of the effect of the scattered neutrino halo on flavor evolution in supernovae. Our example case is an O-Ne-Mg core collapse supernova neutronization neutrino burst. We find that the addition of the halo neutrinos produces qualitative and quantitative changes in the final flavor states of neutrinos. We also find that the halo neutrinos produce a novel distortion of the neutrino flavor swap. Our results provide strong motivation for tackling the full multidimensional and composition-dependent aspects of this problem in the future.