Near-critical supernova outflows and their neutrino signatures

TL;DR

This paper reveals that neutrino-driven outflows in core-collapse supernovae are near-critical, meaning they are on the verge of forming termination shocks, which can serve as sensitive diagnostics of supernova conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a new criterion for shock formation based on fundamental supernova parameters, unifying numerical results and guiding future simulations.

Findings

Neutrino outflows are near-critical, on the verge of shock formation.

The shock formation criterion depends on neutrino luminosity, energy, and PNS properties.

DUNE can detect neutrino signatures indicative of these shocks.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the neutrino-driven outflows inside exploding core-collapse supernovae possess a special property of near-criticality, that is, they are on the edge of forming termination shocks. We derive a novel criterion for the formation of the shock, in terms of the fundamental parameters of the problem: the neutrino luminosity and energy as well as the properties of the protoneutron star. The criterion provides a unified description of the available numerical results and motivates future simulations. The property of near-criticality makes the neutrino signatures of the termination shocks a sensitive diagnostic of the physical conditions around the PNS several seconds into the explosion. The expected signal at DUNE is found to be statistically significant.