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.

11 pages, 17 figures

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• Neutrino Spectra from Nuclear Weak Interactions in $sd$-Shell Nuclei Under Astrophysical 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