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Main Authors: Liu, Jiabao, Nagakura, Hiroki
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01096
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author Liu, Jiabao
Nagakura, Hiroki
author_facet Liu, Jiabao
Nagakura, Hiroki
contents We present an approximate energy-integration method for identifying collisional neutrino flavor instabilities. Direct evaluation of the dispersion relation requires multi-dimensional integrals over neutrino phase space, making systematic searches for unstable modes in numerical models of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and binary neutron star mergers (BNSMs) computationally expensive. In the literature there are some approximate schemes, but they are largely restricted to the homogeneous limit and can exhibit inaccuracies as reported in recent studies. In the current paper, we clarify the origin of the limitations in previous schemes and provide a better approximation method that robustly preserves the key physics of spectral asymmetries and collision rates. It yields a reduced dispersion relation that is inexpensive to evaluate. Comparison with exact solutions demonstrates that our new approximate method shows a good performance in computing both real frequencies and growth rates across a wide range of regimes, including isotropic and anisotropic neutrino distributions for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous modes. This provides a practical, accurate, and scalable framework for identifying collisional flavor instabilities in high-energy astrophysical simulations such as CCSNe and BNSMs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01096
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
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spellingShingle Approximate Energy-Integration Method for Identifying Collisional Neutrino Flavor Instabilities
Liu, Jiabao
Nagakura, Hiroki
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
We present an approximate energy-integration method for identifying collisional neutrino flavor instabilities. Direct evaluation of the dispersion relation requires multi-dimensional integrals over neutrino phase space, making systematic searches for unstable modes in numerical models of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and binary neutron star mergers (BNSMs) computationally expensive. In the literature there are some approximate schemes, but they are largely restricted to the homogeneous limit and can exhibit inaccuracies as reported in recent studies. In the current paper, we clarify the origin of the limitations in previous schemes and provide a better approximation method that robustly preserves the key physics of spectral asymmetries and collision rates. It yields a reduced dispersion relation that is inexpensive to evaluate. Comparison with exact solutions demonstrates that our new approximate method shows a good performance in computing both real frequencies and growth rates across a wide range of regimes, including isotropic and anisotropic neutrino distributions for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous modes. This provides a practical, accurate, and scalable framework for identifying collisional flavor instabilities in high-energy astrophysical simulations such as CCSNe and BNSMs.
title Approximate Energy-Integration Method for Identifying Collisional Neutrino Flavor Instabilities
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01096