Sterile neutrino oscillations in core-collapse supernovae

TL;DR

This paper explores how oscillations between electron neutrinos and sterile neutrinos in core-collapse supernovae can significantly enhance explosion energies by improving neutrino transport, with potential implications for supernova mechanisms and dark matter.

Contribution

It introduces supernova simulations incorporating sterile neutrino oscillations, identifying conditions that can boost explosion energies and revealing periodic neutrino luminosity patterns.

Findings

Sterile neutrino oscillations can increase supernova explosion energies.

Oscillations can enable stars that would otherwise collapse to explode.

A periodicity in neutrino luminosity due to sterile neutrino cycles was observed.

Abstract

We have made core-collapse supernova simulations that allow oscillations between electron neutrinos (or their anti particles) with right-handed sterile neutrinos. We have considered a range of mixing angles and sterile neutrino masses including those consistent with sterile neutrinos as a dark matter candidate. We examine whether such oscillations can impact the core bounce and shock reheating in supernovae. We identify the optimum ranges of mixing angles and masses that can dramatically enhance the supernova explosion by efficiently transporting electron anti-neutrinos from the core to behind the shock where they provide additional heating leading to much larger explosion kinetic energies. We show that this effect can cause stars to explode that otherwise would have collapsed. We find that an interesting periodicity in the neutrino luminosity develops due to a cycle of depletion of the neutrino density by conversion to sterile neutrinos that shuts off the conversion, followed by a replenished neutrino density as neutrinos transport through the core.