Flavor mixing and time of flight delay of supernova neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates how neutrino flavor mixing and mass-induced time delays from supernovae affect the detected neutrino signals, revealing complex changes in event rates over time.

Contribution

It analyzes the combined impact of flavor mixing and mass effects on supernova neutrino signals in realistic three-flavor scenarios.

Findings

Neutrino flavor mixing causes non-trivial changes in event rates.

Mass-induced time delays affect the observed neutrino signal.

Flavor mixing influences energy spectrum distortion.

Abstract

The neutrinos from galactic supernovae can be detected by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and the Super-Kamiokande. The effect of neutrino mass can show up in the observed neutrino signal by (i) delay in the time of flight and (ii) distortion of the neutrino energy spectrum due to flavor mixing. We discuss a combination of the two effects for both charged and neutral current processes in the detectors for realistic three flavor scenarios and show that neutrino flavor mixing can lead to non-trivial changes in the event rate as a function of time.