Neutrino crown of a protoneutron star and analysis of its convective instability

A numerical solution to the problem of the structure of the neutrino crown of a protoneutron star that is formed upon an iron-star-core collapse, which is peculiar to all massive stars at the end of their thermonuclear evolution, is given. The structure of a neutrino crown, which is semitransparent to neutrino radiation from a spherical layer between the neutrinosphere and the front of the accretion shock wave, is determined by a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations of spherically symmetric neutrino hydrodynamics with allowance for a complete set of beta processes in a Boltzmann free-nucleon gas and an ultrarelativistic Fermi-Dirac electron-positron gas that form neutrino-crown matter. The problem of consistently taking into account nonequilibrium neutrino-absorption and neutrino-emission processes and the problem of formulating boundary conditions for a neutrino crown were the main problems in constructing the numerical solution in question, which was obtained by means of a dedicated algorithm. The problem at hand features a number of parameters: the protoneutron-star mass, M₀; the rate of accretion of the outer layers of the collapsing star being considered, ⊙M₀; the effective temperature of the neutrinosphere and the effective neutrino chemical potential there, T _veff and ψ _veff, respectively; and, finally, the total neutrino emissivity of the neutrinosphere, $L_{v\tilde v} $ . Two of these parameters, M₀ and $L_{v\tilde v} $ , are varied within broad intervals in accordance with the hydrodynamic theory of a collapse. On one hand, the numerical solutions constructed in the present study give an idea of the physical conditions in the immediate vicinity of a protoneutron star in the course of its continuing gravitational collapse; on the other hand, they make it possible to obtain exhaustive information about its convective instability, which is the most important property of a so-called soundless collapse—that is, a collapse not accompanied by an explosion of a supernova scale. The increment of the development of a convective instability is obtained at a linear stage, this giving sufficient grounds to introduce the hypothesis that the instability in question plays a key role in the origin of observed gamma-ray bursts. More precisely, these bursts may result from the development of the instability at the subsequent nonlinear stage, which has yet to be studied theoretically—in particular, on the basis of non-one-dimensional numerical models of neutrino hydrodynamics.     

Neutrinos in gravitational collapse: Analysis of the flux profile

The flux profile of the neutrinos emitted from a collapsing spherical object, as seen by a remote observer is studied. The model of the collapsing star consists of the Friedmann dust interior matched onto the Schwarzschild exterior. It is assumed that the neutrino emission occurs from an interior shell in a very short time interval. It is found that the nature of the flux profile falls into four distinct categories depending on the progress of collapse. Interesting features such as bursts, discontinuities, decay, etc are observed when the collapse has sufficiently progressed.     

Spin flip of neutrinos with magnetic moment in core-collapse supernova

Neutrinos with magnetic moment experience chirality flips while scattering off charged particles. It is known that if neutrino is a Dirac fermion, then such chirality flips lead to the production of sterile right-handed neutrinos inside the core of a star during the stellar collapse, which may facilitate the supernova explosion and modify the supernova neutrino signal. In the present paper we reexamine the production of right-handed neutrinos during the collapse using a dynamical model of the collapse. We refine the estimates of the values of the Dirac magnetic moment which are necessary to substantially alter the supernova dynamics and neutrno signal. It is argued in particular that Super-Kamiokande will be sensitive at least to μ _{ν Dirac} = 10⁻¹³μ_B in case of a galactic supernova explosion. Also we briefly discuss the case of Majorana neutrino magnetic moment. It is pointed out that in the inner supernova core spin flips may quickly equilibrate electron neutrinos with nonelectron antineutrinos if μ _{ν Majorana} ≳ 10⁻¹²μ_B. This may lead to various consequences for supernova physics.     

Macroscopic parity violation and supernova asymmetries

Core collapse supernovae are dominated by weakly interacting neutrinos. This provides a unique opportunity for macroscopic parity violation. We speculate that parity violation in a strong magnetic field can lead to an asymmetry in the explosion and a recoil of the newly formed neutron star. We estimate the size of this asymmetry from neutrino polarized-neutron elastic scattering, polarized electron capture and neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering in a (partially) polarized electron gas.     

Magnetorotational Mechanism of the Explosion of Core-Collapse Supernovae

The idea of the magnetorotational explosion mechanism is that the energy of rotation of the neutron star formed in the course of a collapse is transformed into the energy of an expanding shock wave by means of a magnetic field. In the two-dimensional case, the time of this transformation depends weakly on the initial strength of the poloidal magnetic field because of the development of a magnetorotational instability. Differential rotation leads to the twisting and growth of the toroidal magnetic-field component, which becomes much stronger than the poloidal component. As a result, the development of the instability and an exponential growth of all field components occur. The explosion topology depends on the structure of the magnetic field. In the case where the initial configuration of the magnetic field is close to a dipole configuration, the ejection of matter has a jet character, whereas, in the case of a quadrupole configuration, there arises an equatorial ejection. In either case, the energy release is sufficient for explaining the observed average energy of supernova explosion. Neutrinos are emitted as the collapse and the formation of a rapidly rotating neutron star proceeds. In addition, neutrino radiation arises in the process of magnetorotational explosion owing to additional rotational-energy losses. If the mass of a newborn neutron star exceeds the mass limit for a nonrotating neutron star, then subsequent gradual energy losses may later lead to the formation of a black hole. In that case, the energy carried away by a repeated flash of neutrino radiation increases substantially. In order to explain an interval of 4.5 hours between the two observed neutrino signals from SN 1987A, it is necessary to assume a weakening of the magnetorotional instability and a small initial magnetic field (10⁹?10¹⁰ G) in the newly formed rotating neutron star. The existence of a black hole in the SN 1987A remnant could explain the absence of any visible pointlike source at the center of the explosion.     

Strangeness in stellar matter

A protoneutron star is formed immediately after the gravitational collapse of the core of a massive star. At birth, the hot and high density matter in such a star contains a large number of neutrinos trapped during collapse. Trapped neutrinos generally inhibit the presence of exotic matter — hyperons, a kaon condensate, or quarks. However, as the neutrinos diffuse out in about 10–15 s, the threshold for the appearance of strangeness is reduced; hence, the composition and the structure of the star can change significantly. The effect of exotic, negatively-charged, strangeness-bearing components is always to soften the equation of state, and the possibility exists that the star collapses to a black hole at this time. This could explain why no neutron star has yet been seen in the remnant of supernova SN1987A, even though one certainly existed when neutrinos were detected on Feb. 23, 1987. With new generation neutrino detectors it is feasible to test different theoretical scenarios observationally.     

Neutrino signals from the formation of a black hole: A probe of the equation of state of dense matter

The gravitational collapse of a nonrotating, black-hole-forming massive star is studied by nu-radiation-hydrodynamical simulations for two different sets of realistic equation of state of dense matter. We show that the event will produce as many neutrinos as the ordinary supernova, but with distinctive characteristics in luminosities and spectra that will be an unmistakable indication of black hole formation. More importantly, the neutrino signals are quite sensitive to the difference of equation of state and can be used as a useful probe into the properties of dense matter. The event will be unique in that they will be shining only by neutrinos (and, possibly, gravitational waves) but not by photons, and hence they should be an important target of neutrino astronomy.     

Neutrinos,supernovae, and the origin of the heavy elements

Stars of～8-100 M_⊙end their lives as core-collapse supernovae(SNe). In the process they emit a powerful burst of neutrinos,produce a variety of elements, and leave behind either a neutron star or a black hole. The wide mass range for SN progenitors results in diverse neutrino signals, explosion energies, and nucleosynthesis products. A major mechanism to produce nuclei heavier than iron is rapid neutron capture, or the r process. This process may be connected to SNe in several ways. A brief review is presented on current understanding of neutrino emission, explosion, and nucleosynthesis of SNe.     

A neutron star collapse induced by a primordial black hole as the source of cosmological γ-ray bursts

A novel scenario is proposed for the origin of cosmological γ-ray bursts relating them with the induced collapse of an isolated neutron star under the action of a primordial black hole inside it. A mechanism is pointed out for black hole capturing into bounded orbits in a contracting protostellar cloud (which further evolves to a neutron star), and it is shown that this mechanism is most efficient in the pregalactic epoch. The qualitative results of neutrino transfer calculations are presented; these neutrinos originate from the quark phase transition in the nucleon matter which takes place in the accretion flow in the interior of the star. The neutrinos and antineutrinos escaping from a dense nucleon matter are degenerate and annihilate in the immediate vicinity of the star surface where an inverse temperature layer in the outstreaming electron-positron wind is produced. This layer acts as a natural barrier against baryon pollution and gives rise to a very high (≈ 10³) value of the Lorentz factor in the expanding plasma, in agreement with the observed energy and duration of the process. This makes it possible to explain the main properties of the γ-ray bursts. We also consider other important features of this scenario, including the predominantly extragalactic origin of the bursts, the apparent absence of the cosmological time dilation, the excess drop in the number of bursts—luminosity dependence for z>0.7, and the unlikely corrllation between the burst and the gravitational wave pulse.     

High energy neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts with precursor supernovae

The high energy neutrino signature from proton-proton and photo-meson interactions in a supernova remnant shell ejected prior to a gamma-ray burst provides a test for the precursor supernova, or supranova, model of gamma-ray bursts. Protons in the supernova remnant shell and photons entrapped from a supernova explosion or a pulsar wind from a fast-rotating neutron star remnant provide ample targets for protons escaping the internal shocks of the gamma-ray burst to interact and produce high energy neutrinos. We calculate the expected neutrino fluxes, which can be detected by current and future experiments.     

Protoneutron star cooling with convection: the effect of the symmetry energy

We model neutrino emission from a newly born neutron star subsequent to a supernova explosion to study its sensitivity to the equation of state, neutrino opacities, and convective instabilities at high baryon density. We find the time period and spatial extent over which convection operates is sensitive to the behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy at and above nuclear density. When convection ends within the protoneutron star, there is a break in the predicted neutrino emission that may be clearly observable.     

TeV mu neutrinos from young neutron stars

Neutron stars are efficient accelerators for bringing charges up to relativistic energies. We show that if positive ions are accelerated to approximately 1 PeV near the surface of a young neutron star (t(age) less than or nearly 10(5) yr), protons interacting with the star's radiation field produce beamed mu neutrinos with energies of approximately 50 TeV that could produce the brightest neutrino sources at these energies yet proposed. These neutrinos would be coincident with the radio beam, so that, if the star is detected as a radio pulsar, the neutrino beam will sweep the Earth; the star would be a "neutrino pulsar." Looking for nu(mu) emission from young neutron stars will provide a valuable probe of the energetics of the neutron star magnetosphere.     

Oscillation of Dirac and Majorana neutrinos from muon decay in the case of a general interaction

We analyse the possibility of distinguishing Dirac and Majorana neutrinos in future neutrino factory experiments in which neutrinos are produced in muon decay when, in addition to a vector type as in the SM, there are also scalar interactions. We check this possibility in an experiment with a near detector, where the observed neutrinos do not oscillate, and in a far detector, after the neutrino oscillations. Neglecting higher-order corrections, even neutrino observation in the near detector does not give a chance to differentiate their character. However, this possibility appears in the leading-order after the neutrino oscillations observed in far detector.     

Supernova-Explosion Mechanism Involving Neutrinos

A major part of the energy released upon the gravitational collapse of massive-star cores is carried away by neutrinos. Neutrinos play a crucial role in collapsing supernovae (SNe). At the present time, mathematical models of core-collapse SNe are based on multidimensional gas dynamics and thermonuclear reactions, whereas the neutrino transport is frequently treated in simplified way. An accurate analysis of neutrinos in a spherically symmetric gravitational collapse is performed on the basis of Boltzmann kinetic equations including all weak-interaction reactions with exact quantum-mechanical matrix elements. The role of multidimensional effects is studied bymeans of multidimensional gas dynamics allowing for the neutrino transport via diffusion treated by employing flux limiters. The possibility of largescale convection, which is of interest both from the point of view of explaining a type II supernova (SN) and from the point of view of implementing an experiment aimed at detecting possible energetic (?10 MeV) neutrinos from an SN, is discussed. Thermonuclear burning leads to the explosion of a type I SN. A hot central region and the subsequent large-scale convection may also play an important role in the SN mechanism. If neutrinos and convection play a key role for a type II SN, then, in order to explain gamma radiation from product radioactive elements, convection is of importance in the case of SNe belonging to both types. In addition, convection may be important for bright type I SNe. Original methods are presented for multidimensional gas dynamics involving thermonuclear burning and for multitemperature gas dynamics involving radiative transfer.     

Resonant oscillations of massless neutrinos in matter

Oscillations of neutrinos propagating in matter do not require that neutrinos are massive, at a fundamental level. Even if neutrinos are massless as a consequence of an exact symmetry - such as total lepton number - they can oscillate into one another if the weak interaction has a small non-universal component, whose existence would signal physics beyond the standard model. The experimental constraints and theoretical plausibility of the mechanism are discussed. Coherent neutrino and antineutrino scattering could substantially affect the late thermal phase neutrino signal from a supernova explosion.     

Constraint on the heavy sterile neutrino mixing angles in the SO(10) model with double see-saw mechanism

Constraints on the heavy sterile neutrino mixing angles are studied in the framework of a minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model with the use of the double see-saw mechanism. A new singlet matter in addition to the right-handed neutrinos is introduced to realize the double see-saw mechanism. The light Majorana neutrino mass matrix is, in general, given by a combination of those of the singlet neutrinos and the active neutrinos. The minimal SO(10) model is used to give an example form of the Dirac neutrino mass matrix, which enables us to predict the masses and the mixing angles in the enlarged 9×9 neutrino mass matrix. Mixing angles between the light Majorana neutrinos and the heavy sterile neutrinos are shown to be within the LEP experimental bound on all ranges of the Majorana phases.     

Equation of State of Protoneutron Star with Trapped Neutrinos

The influence of trapped neutrinos on the proto-neutron star is studied in the framework of relativistic mean-field theory. The results show that trapped neutrinos increase proton fraction and make the equation of ๏๏ state of neutron star matter softer when neglecting hyperonic freedom, while suppress the appearance of hyperons and make the equation of state stiffer when including hyperons in the protoneutron star. The maximum mass, compared with cold neutron star which is in beta equilibrium, decreases by 0.06_{M_{\odot}} for non-strange protoneutron star while increases by 0.21_{M_{\odot}} for protoneutron star with hyperons when the relative number of trapped neutrino is 0.4.