Nuclear neutrino energy spectra in high temperature astrophysical environments

Abstract

Astrophysical environments that reach temperatures greater than $\sim$ 100 keV can have significant neutrino energy loss via both plasma processes and nuclear weak interactions. We find that nuclear processes likely produce the highest-energy neutrinos. Among the important weak nuclear interactions are both charged current channels (electron capture/emission and positron capture/emission) and neutral current channels (de-excitation of nuclei via neutrino pair emission). We show that in order to make a realistic prediction of the nuclear neutrino spectrum, one must take nuclear structure into account; in some cases, the most important transitions may involve excited states, possibly in both parent and daughter nuclei. We find that the standard technique of producing a neutrino energy spectrum by using a single transition with a Q-value and matrix element chosen to fit published neutrino production rates and energy losses will not accurately capture important spectral features.

arXiv comment11 pages, 17 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Stability of Standing Accretion Shocks, With an Eye Toward Core Collapse Supernovae
• Pulsar spins from an instability in the accretion shock of supernovae
• Nucleosynthesis-relevant conditions in neutrino-driven supernova outflows. I. Spherically symmetric hydrodynamic simulations
• Three-Dimensional Simulations of Mixing Instabilities in Supernova Explosions
• Multidimensional supernova simulations with approximative neutrino transport. II. Convection and the advective-acoustic cycle in the supernova core
• An Investigation into the Character of Pre-Explosion Core-Collapse Supernova Shock Motion
• Detection possibility of the pair-annihilation neutrinos from the neutrino-cooled pre-supernova star
• Results From Core-Collapse Simulations with Multi-Dimensional, Multi-Angle Neutrino Transport
• KamLAND Sensitivity to Neutrinos from Pre-Supernova Stars
• Neutrino-pair emission from nuclear de-excitation in core-collapse supernova simulations
• Modification of the Brink-Axel Hypothesis for High Temperature Nuclear Weak Interactions
• Neutrino spectra from stellar electron capture
• Neutrino absorption by hot nuclei in supernova environments
• Neutrino Pair Emission from Hot Nuclei During Stellar Collapse

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• What can be learned from a future supernova neutrino detection?
• Neutrinos from beta processes in a presupernova: probing the isotopic evolution of a massive star
• Neutrino emissions in all flavors up to the pre-bounce of massive stars and the possibility of their detections
• Sites That Can Produce Left-Handed Amino Acids in the Supernova Neutrino Amino Acid Processing Model
• Neutrino Spectra from Nuclear Weak Interactions in $sd$-Shell Nuclei Under Astrophysical Conditions
• Nuclear Weak Rates and Detailed Balance in Stellar Conditions
• Non-conservation of Lepton Numbers in the Neutrino Sector Could Change the Prospects for Core Collapse Supernova Explosions
• Neutrinos from pre-supernova in the framework of TQRPA method
• Neutrino spectrum and energy loss rates due to weak processes on hot ${}^{56}$Fe in pre-supernova environment
• Pre-Supernova (Anti)Neutrino Emission Due to Weak-Interaction Reactions with Hot Nuclei