Exploring the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy from Isotopic Ratios of Supernova Nucleosynthesis Products in Presolar Grains

TL;DR

This study proposes using isotopic ratios in presolar grains from supernovae to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, based on new reaction rate calculations affecting key isotopic abundances.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method employing isotopic measurements in presolar grains to constrain neutrino mass hierarchy, supported by updated reaction rates and detailed nucleosynthesis modeling.

Findings

New reaction rates significantly alter lithium isotope ratios.

Distinct isotopic signatures differentiate normal and inverted hierarchies.

Isotopic ratios in presolar grains can serve as neutrino hierarchy probes.

Abstract

We study the nucleosynthesis in a core-collapse supernova model including newly calculated neutrino-induced reaction rates with both collective and Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) neutrino-flavor oscillations considered. We show that the measurement of a pair of $^{11}$B/$^{10}$B and $^{138}$La/$^{139}$La or $^6$Li/$^7$Li and $^{138}$La/$^{139}$La in presolar grains that are inferred to have originated from core-collapse supernovae could constrain the neutrino mass hierarchy. The new shell-model and the model of quasi-particle random phase approximation in the estimate of three important neutrino-induced reactions, $\nu+^{16}$O, $\nu+^{20}$Ne, and $\nu+^{138}$Ba are applied in our reaction network. The new rates decrease the calculated $^{7}$Li/$^{6}$Li ratio by a factor of five compared with the previous study. More interestingly, these new rates result in a clear separation of the isotopic ratio of $^{11}$B/$^{10}$B between normal and inverted mass hierarchies in the O/Ne, O/C, and C/He layers where $^{138}$La abundance depends strongly on the mass hierarchy. In these layers, the sensitivity of the calculated abundances of $^{10,11}$B and $^{6,7}$Li to the nuclear reaction uncertainties is also tiny. Therefore, we propose that the $^{11}$B/$^{10}$B vs. $^{138}$La/$^{139}$La and $^6$Li/$^7$Li vs. $^{138}$La/$^{139}$La in type X silicon carbide grains sampled material from C/He layer can be used as a new probe to constrain the neutrino mass hierarchy.