Role of Matter Inhomogeneity on Fast Flavor Conversion of Supernova Neutrinos

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bhattacharyya, Soumya, Wu, Meng-Ru, Xiong, Zewei
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Bhattacharyya, Soumya
Wu, Meng-Ru
Xiong, Zewei
author_facet Bhattacharyya, Soumya
Wu, Meng-Ru
Xiong, Zewei
contents We investigated the impact of a spatially varying matter potential $λ$, coming from neutrino-electron forward scattering, on the emergence of fast neutrino flavor conversion (FFC) triggered by the presence of zero crossings in the angular distribution of the neutrino electron lepton number (ELN). We find that FFC can be significantly affected as the spatial variation rate of $λ$ increases, and strong spatial variations can completely stabilize initially unstable systems. Using stability analysis based solely on initial conditions, we identified for the first time a critical variation rate above which no FFC occurs even if the flavor instability exists. By analyzing several representative matter profiles based on an 18 $M_{\odot}$ SN model, we show that spatially inhomogeneous $λ$ can suppress the occurrence of FFC associated with shallow ELN zero crossings in most of the SN's radial region, especially during the accretion phase. Our finding highlights the need to consider the impact of matter inhomogeneity in the development of improved SN models that aim to include the effect of neutrino flavor conversions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_11316
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Role of Matter Inhomogeneity on Fast Flavor Conversion of Supernova Neutrinos
Bhattacharyya, Soumya
Wu, Meng-Ru
Xiong, Zewei
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Theory
We investigated the impact of a spatially varying matter potential $λ$, coming from neutrino-electron forward scattering, on the emergence of fast neutrino flavor conversion (FFC) triggered by the presence of zero crossings in the angular distribution of the neutrino electron lepton number (ELN). We find that FFC can be significantly affected as the spatial variation rate of $λ$ increases, and strong spatial variations can completely stabilize initially unstable systems. Using stability analysis based solely on initial conditions, we identified for the first time a critical variation rate above which no FFC occurs even if the flavor instability exists. By analyzing several representative matter profiles based on an 18 $M_{\odot}$ SN model, we show that spatially inhomogeneous $λ$ can suppress the occurrence of FFC associated with shallow ELN zero crossings in most of the SN's radial region, especially during the accretion phase. Our finding highlights the need to consider the impact of matter inhomogeneity in the development of improved SN models that aim to include the effect of neutrino flavor conversions.
title Role of Matter Inhomogeneity on Fast Flavor Conversion of Supernova Neutrinos
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.11316