Decoherence and oscillations of supernova neutrinos

Abstract

Supernova neutrinos have several exceptional features which can lead to interesting physical consequences. At the production point their wave packets have an extremely small size ${\sigma }_x\sim 10^{-11}$ cm; hence the energy uncertainty can be as large as the energy itself, ${\sigma }_E\sim E$, and the coherence length is short. On the way to the Earth the wave packets of mass eigenstates spread to macroscopic sizes and separate. Inside the Earth the mass eigenstates split into eigenstates in matter and oscillate again. The coherence length in the Earth is comparable with the radius of the Earth. We explore these features and their consequences. (i) We present new estimates of the wave packet size. (ii) We consider the decoherence condition for the case of wave packets with spatial spread and show that it is not modified by the spread. (iii) We study the coherence of neutrinos propagating in a multi-layer medium with density jumps at the borders of layers. In this case coherence can be partially restored due to a "catch-up effect", increasing the coherence length beyond the usual estimate. This catch-up effect can occur for supernova neutrinos as they cross the shock wave fronts in the exploding star or the core of the Earth.

32 pages + references; v2: added minor clarifications and references, matches published version

References in corpus (7)

• Updated fit to three neutrino mixing: status of leptonic CP violation
• Simulation of Coherent Non-Linear Neutrino Flavor Transformation in the Supernova Environment I: Correlated Neutrino Trajectories
• Collective neutrino flavor transitions in supernovae and the role of trajectory averaging
• Adiabaticity and spectral splits in collective neutrino transformations
• Synchronization vs. decoherence of neutrino oscillations at intermediate densities
• Stimulated neutrino transformation through turbulence on a changing density profile and application to supernovae
• Effects of Shock Waves on Neutrino Oscillations in Three Supernova Models

Cited by in corpus (28)

• Fundamental physics with the diffuse supernova background neutrinos
• Neutrino Oscillations in Core-Collapse Supernovae and Neutron Star Mergers
• Neutrino decoherence in presence of strong gravitational fields
• A model-independent approach to the reconstruction of multi-flavor supernova neutrino energy spectra
• SN1987A still shining: A Quest for Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos
• Do we have enough evidence to invalidate the mean-field approximation adopted to model collective neutrino oscillations?
• Once-in-a-lifetime encounter models for neutrino media: From coherent oscillations to flavor equilibration
• Astrophysical neutrino oscillations after pulsar timing array analyses
• Another look at synchronized neutrino oscillations
• Neutrino flavor oscillations in a rotating spacetime
• Damping signatures at JUNO, a medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation experiment
• Do non-relativistic neutrinos oscillate?
• Microscopic and Macroscopic Effects in the Decoherence of Neutrino Oscillations
• Neutrino Intensity Interferometry: Measuring Proto-neutron Star Radii During Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Searching New Particles at Neutrino Telescopes with Quantum-Gravitational Decoherence
• Neutrino oscillations and decoherence in short-GRB progenitors
• Probing neutrino decay scenarios by using the Earth matter effects on supernova neutrinos
• Coherence of oscillations in matter and supernova neutrinos
• Inference finds consistency between a neutrino flavor evolution model and Earth-based solar neutrino measurements
• Once-in-a-lifetime encounter models for neutrino media II: Quasi-steady states and miscidynamic flavor evolution
• Extragalactic neutrinos as tracers of Dark Matter?
• Oscillations of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos in the Copious MeV Neutrino Background
• Potential of Neutrino Telescopes to Detect Quantum Gravity-Induced Decoherence in the Presence of Dark Fermions
• A "nu" look at gravitational waves: The black hole birth rate from neutrinos combined with the merger rate from LIGO
• Conversions of propagation eigenstates of supernova neutrinos by atomic electrons
• Accounting for the Heisenberg and Pauli principles in the kinetic approach to neutrino oscillations
• Gravitational effects on neutrino decoherence in Lense-Thirring metric
• Seesaw, coherence and neutrino oscillations