Limits on active-sterile neutrino mixing parameters using heavy nuclei abundances

Abstract

The production of heavy-mass elements due to the rapid neutron-capture mechanism (r-process) is associated with astrophysical scenarios, such as supernovae and neutron-star mergers. In the r-process the capture of neutrons is followed by $\beta$-decays until nuclear stability is reached. A key element in the chain of nuclear weak-decays leading to the production of isotopes may be the change of the parameters controlling the neutrino sector, due to the mixing of active and sterile species. In this work we have addressed this question and calculated $\beta$-decay rates for the nuclei involved in the r-process chains as a function of the neutrino mixing parameters. These rates were then used in the calculation of the abundance of the heavy elements produced in core-collapse supernova and in neutron-star mergers, starting from different initial mass-fraction distributions. The analysis shows that the core-collapse supernova environment contributes with approximately $30\%$ of the total heavy nuclei abundance while the neutron-star merger contributes with about $70\%$ of it. Using available experimental data we have performed a statistical analysis to set limits on the active-sterile neutrino mixing angle and found a best-fit value ${\sin }^{2}2{\theta }_{14}=0.22$, a value comparable with those found in other studies reported in the literature.

References in corpus (48)

• Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (Particle Data Group mini-review)
• The Cosmological Parameters 2006
• The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly
• Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational wave event
• The r-process of stellar nucleosynthesis: Astrophysics and nuclear physics achievements and mysteries
• Evidence for ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\to {\bar{\nu }}_e$ Oscillations from the LSND Experiment at LAMPF
• Global analysis of three-flavour neutrino oscillations: synergies and tensions in the determination of theta_23, delta_CP, and the mass ordering
• Origin of the Heaviest Elements: the Rapid Neutron-Capture Process
• Global analysis of neutrino masses, mixings and phases: entering the era of leptonic CP violation searches
• Status of neutrino oscillations 2018: first hint for normal mass ordering and improved CP sensitivity
• The Extremely Metal-Poor, Neutron-Capture-Rich Star CS 22892-052: A Comprehensive Abundance Analysis
• Global fit to three neutrino mixing: critical look at present precision
• Sterile Neutrino Oscillations: The Global Picture
• A Search for Electron Neutrino Appearance at the Delta m**2 ~ 1 eV**2 Scale
• Identification of strontium in the merger of two neutron stars
• Significant Excess of ElectronLike Events in the MiniBooNE Short-Baseline Neutrino Experiment
• Updated global analysis of neutrino oscillations in the presence of eV-scale sterile neutrinos
• Measurement of the response of a gallium metal solar neutrino experiment to neutrinos from a 51Cr source
• Relativistic neutron star merger simulations with non-zero temperature equations of state I. Variation of binary parameters and equation of state
• The s-Process in Low Metallicity Stars. II. Interpretation of High-Resolution Spectroscopic Observations with AGB models
• Sterile neutrino oscillations after first MiniBooNE results
• Charged-Particle and Neutron-Capture Processes in the High-Entropy Wind of Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Current Status of r-Process Nucleosynthesis
• Galactic evolution of rapid neutron capture process abundances: the inhomogeneous approach
• Limits on nu_e and anti-nu_e disappearance from Gallium and reactor experiments
• Neutrino Mixing and Nucleosynthesis in Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Status of Light Sterile Neutrino Searches
• Detection of Elements at All Three r-process Peaks in the Metal-Poor Star HD 160617
• 3+1 and 3+2 Sterile Neutrino Fits
• Light sterile neutrinos
• The Origin of the Heavy Elements: Recent Progress in the Understanding of the r-Process
• PUSHing Core-Collapse Supernovae to Explosions in Spherical Symmetry III: Nucleosynthesis Yields
• Fingerprints of heavy element nucleosynthesis in the late-time lightcurves of kilonovae
• The influence of collective neutrino oscillations on a supernova r-process
• Impact of eV-mass sterile neutrinos on neutrino-driven supernova outflows
• Impact of active-sterile neutrino mixing on supernova explosion and nucleosynthesis
• Neutrino oscillations: the rise of the PMNS paradigm
• A comparison of the s- and r-process element evolution in local dwarf spheroidal galaxies and in the Milky Way
• The LSND and MiniBooNE Oscillation Searches at High $\Delta m^2$
• Impact of new data for neutron-rich heavy nuclei on theoretical models for $r$-process nucleosynthesis
• White Paper: Measuring the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
• r-Java : An r-process Code and Graphical User Interface for Heavy-Element Nucleosynthesis
• On the time-modulation of the K-shell electron capture decay of H-like 140Pr58+ ions produced by neutrino-flavour mixing
• r-Java 2.0: the nuclear physics
• A holistic abundance analysis of r-rich stars
• Hunting keV sterile neutrinos with KATRIN: building the first TRISTAN module
• r-Java 2.0: the astrophysics
• Neutrino mixing in nuclear rapid neutron-capture processes