Supernova Neutrinos - A Probe of Matter at Extreme Density

Physics – Nuclear Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Core collapse supernovae are triggered by the implosion of the inner core of a massive star (M_star ~ 8-20 M_solar), when the core mass is on the order of the Chandrashekar mass (M_core ~= 1.4 M_solar). During the implosion nearly all ( ~ 99%) of the enormous gravitational binding energy ( ~ 10^53 ergs) gained is stored as internal energy of the newly born, proto-neutron star (PNS). The subsequent evolution of the proto-neutron star is driven by neutrino diffusion. Temporal and spectral characteristics of the neutrino emission depend on the rate at which neutrinos diffuse through the imploded PNS which, at this early stage, is composed of hot (T ~ 20-30 MeV) and dense (nB ~ 2-3 n0 where n_0=0.16 fm-3) strongly-interacting matter. In this talk I review recent work on neutrino opacities in nucleonic matter at high density and contrast it with scenarios wherein one encounters a phase transition to either quark matter or kaon condensed matter. I show that the generic effect of a first order transitions at high baryon density is to greatly increase the neutrino opacity in the resulting mixed phase. This is arises mainly due to coherent scattering of neutrinos from droplet structures in the mixed phase. In addition, I briefly discuss how a second-order phase transition from normal quark matter to color superconducting quark matter will affect neutrino diffusion in the core, were the core to contain quark matter. Neutrino emission during the first several seconds subsequent to the birth of neutron star is a directly observable feature of a galactic supernova explosion. I will discuss in detail aspects of the neutrino signal which will probe the properties of matter at high density and comment on the detection of neutrinos from a galactic supernova in current neutrino detectors such as Super K and SNO. In particular, I will address whether or not such a fortuitous event will they be able to provide a clear and discernible signature of new phases of matter at high density.

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