Scalar non-standard neutrino interactions in Galactic supernovae

TL;DR

This paper explores how scalar non-standard neutrino interactions can be studied through supernova neutrino signals, revealing significant potential for future experiments to detect or constrain these interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of SNSI effects on supernova neutrino flavor conversion and demonstrates enhanced sensitivity in supernova environments compared to solar or terrestrial sources.

Findings

SNSI modify neutrino mass-squared differences in supernovae

Supernova neutrino signals can improve SNSI sensitivity by up to four orders of magnitude

Neutrino energy levels are affected by density-squared-dependent mass contributions

Abstract

We analyze the prospects for studying scalar non-standard interactions (SNSI) using the neutrino burst from a Galactic supernova. SNSI modify the resonant flavor conversion and, correspondingly, the neutronization burst signal, and may be identifiable in future multi-tonne-scale experiments such as DUNE. We show that, in the presence of SNSI, neutrinos propagating out of the dense supernova environment acquire a density-squared-dependent contribution to their mass-squared differences, which in turn modifies the energy levels of the neutrino mass eigenstates. This phenomenon is not present in less dense environments like the Earth or the Sun. For a given mass ordering, supernova neutrinos can improve the sensitivity to SNSI parameters by up to four orders of magnitude compared to that achievable with solar or terrestrial neutrino sources.