Neutrino Processes in Supernovae and the Physics of Protoneutron Star Winds

Abstract

In preparation for a set of hydrodynamical simulations of core-collapse supernovae and protoneutron star winds, we investigate the rates of production and thermalization of ${\nu }_{\mu }$ and ${\nu }_{\tau }$ neutrinos in dense nuclear matter. Included are contributions from electron scattering, electron-positron annihilation, nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung, and nucleon scattering. We find that nucleon scattering dominates electron scattering as a thermalization process at neutrino energies greater than $\sim$15 MeV. In addition, nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung dominates electron-positron annihilation as a production mechanism at low neutrino energies, near and below the ${\nu }_{\mu }$ and ${\nu }_{\tau }$ neutrinospheres. Furthermore, we have begun a study of steady-state general relativistic protoneutron star winds employing simple neutrino heating and cooling terms. From this analysis we obtain acceleration profiles as well as asymptotic lepton fractions and baryon entropies essential in assessing the wind as a potential site for $r$-process nucleosynthesis.

arXiv comment6 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference "Nuclei in the Cosmos 2000," held in Aarhus, Denmark June 27-July 1, 2000

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Nuclear weak-interaction processes in stars
• Protoneutron star evolution and the neutrino driven wind in general relativistic neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations
• The neutrino signal from protoneutron star accretion and black hole formation
• Core-collapse supernova explosions triggered by a quark-hadron phase transition during the early post-bounce phase
• Active-Sterile Neutrino Conversion: Consequences for the r-Process and Supernova Neutrino Detection
• Evolution of collisional neutrino flavor instabilities in spherically symmetric supernova models
• Fast neutrino flavor conversions in a supernova: Emergence, evolution, and effects
• Radioactive $\gamma$-Ray Emissions from Neutron Star Mergers
• Non equilibrium dynamics of mixing, oscillations and equilibration: a model study