12,316 research outputs found
Prospects for Detecting Supernova Neutrino Flavor Oscillations
The neutrinos from a Type II supernova provide perhaps our best opportunity
to probe cosmologically interesting muon and/or tauon neutrino masses. This is
because matter enhanced neutrino oscillations can lead to an anomalously hot
nu_e spectrum, and thus to enhanced charged current cross sections in
terrestrial detectors. Two recently proposed supernova neutrino observatories,
OMNIS and LAND, will detect neutrons spalled from target nuclei by neutral and
charged current neutrino interactions. As this signal is not flavor specific,
it is not immediately clear whether a convincing neutrino oscillation signal
can be extracted from such experiments. To address this issue we examine the
responses of a series of possible light and heavy mass targets, 9Be, 23Na,
35Cl, and 208Pb. We find that strategies for detecting oscillations which use
only neutron count rates are problematic at best, even if cross sections are
determined by ancillary experiments. Plausible uncertainties in supernova
neutrino spectra tend to obscure rate enhancements due to oscillations.
However, in the case of 208Pb, a signal emerges that is largely flavor specific
and extraordinarily sensitive to the nu_e temperature, the emission of two
neutrons. This signal and its flavor specificity are associated with the
strength and location of the first-forbidden responses for neutral and charge
current reactions, aspects of the 208Pb neutrino cross section that have not
been discussed previously. Hadronic spin transfer experiments might be helpful
in confirming some of the nuclear structure physics underlying our conclusions.Comment: 27 pages, RevTeX, 2 figure
Neutrino Capture and r-Process Nucleosynthesis
We explore neutrino capture during r-process nucleosynthesis in
neutrino-driven ejecta from nascent neutron stars. We focus on the interplay
between charged-current weak interactions and element synthesis, and we
delineate the important role of equilibrium nuclear dynamics. During the period
of coexistence of free nucleons and light and/or heavy nuclei, electron
neutrino capture inhibits the r-process. At all stages, capture on free
neutrons has a larger impact than capture on nuclei. However, neutrino capture
on heavey nuclei by itself, if it is very strong, is also detrimental to the
r-process until large nuclear equilibrium clusters break down and the classical
neutron-capture phase of the r-process begins. The sensitivity of the r-process
to neutrino irradiation means that neutrino-capture effects can strongly
constrain the r-process site, neutrino physics, or both. These results apply
also to r-process scenarios other than neutrino-heated winds.Comment: 20 pages, 17 figures, Submitted to Physical Review
The Influence of Nuclear Composition on the Electron Fraction in the Post-Core-Bounce Supernova Environment
We study the early evolution of the electron fraction (or, alternatively, the
neutron-to-proton ratio) in the region above the hot proto-neutron star formed
after a supernova explosion. We study the way in which the electron fraction in
this environment is set by a competition between lepton (electron, positron,
neutrino, and antineutrino) capture processes on free neutrons and protons and
nuclei. Our calculations take explicit account of the effect of nuclear
composition changes, such as formation of alpha particles (the alpha effect)
and the shifting of nuclear abundances in nuclear statistical equilibrium
associated with cooling in near-adiabatic outflow. We take detailed account of
the process of weak interaction freeze-out in conjunction with these nuclear
composition changes. Our detailed treatment shows that the alpha effect can
cause significant increases in the electron fraction, while neutrino and
antineutrino capture on heavy nuclei tends to have a buffering effect on this
quantity. We also examine the effect on weak rates and the electron fraction of
fluctuations in time in the neutrino and antineutrino energy spectra arising
from hydrodynamic waves. Our analysis is guided by the Mayle & Wilson supernova
code numerical results for the neutrino energy spectra and density and velocity
profiles.Comment: 38 pages, AAS LaTeX, 8 figure
Three dimensional laser Doppler velocimeter turbulence measurements in a pipe flow
The mean and turbulent u, v, and w components of a gaseous fully developed turbulent pipe flow were measured with a laser Doppler velocimeter system. Measurements of important system parameters are presented and discussed in relation to the measurement accuracy. Simultaneous comparisons of the laser Doppler and hot wire anemometer measurements in the turbulent flow provided evidence that the two systems were responding to the same flow phenomena
Evidence for an Intense Neutrino Flux during -Process Nucleosynthesis?
We investigate the possibility that neutrino capture on heavy nuclei competes
with beta decay in the environment where the -Process elements are
synthesized. We find that such neutrino capture is not excluded by existing
abundance determinations. We show that inclusion of significant neutrino
capture on the (neutron number) N=82 waiting point nuclei can allow the
inferred abundances of these species to provide a good fit to steady weak (beta
decay plus neutrino capture) flow equilibrium. In fact, for particular choices
of neutrino flux conditions, this fit is improved over the case where nuclei
change their charge by beta decay alone. However, this improved fit can be
realized only if neutrino capture plays a negligible role in nuclear decay back
toward stability. We discuss the implications of these considerations for
current proposed sites and models for -Process nucleosynthesis.Comment: 10 pages, plain tex, submitted to ApJ
Neutrino-Accelerated Hot Hydrogen Burning
We examine the effects of significant electron anti-neutrino fluxes on
hydrogen burning. Specifically, we find that the bottleneck weak nuclear
reactions in the traditional pp-chain and the hot CNO cycle can be accelerated
by anti-neutrino capture, increasing the energy generation rate. We also
discuss how anti-neutrino capture reactions can alter the conditions for break
out into the rp-process. We speculate on the impact of these considerations for
the evolution and dynamics of collapsing very- and super- massive compact
objects.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ; minor content chang
An Active-Sterile Neutrino Transformation Solution for r-Process Nucleosynthesis
We discuss how matter-enhanced active-sterile neutrino transformation in both
neutrino and antineutrino channels could enable the production of the rapid
neutron capture (r-process) nuclei in neutrino-heated supernova ejecta. In this
scheme the lightest sterile neutrino would be heavier than the electron
neutrino and split from it by a vacuum mass-squared difference roughly between
3 and 70 eV and vacuum mixing angle given by .Comment: 27 pages plus twelve figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Neutrino energy transport in weak decoupling and big bang nucleosynthesis
We calculate the evolution of the early universe through the epochs of weak
decoupling, weak freeze-out and big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) by
simultaneously coupling a full strong, electromagnetic, and weak nuclear
reaction network with a multi-energy group Boltzmann neutrino energy transport
scheme. The modular structure of our code provides the ability to dissect the
relative contributions of each process responsible for evolving the dynamics of
the early universe in the absence of neutrino flavor oscillations. Such an
approach allows a detailed accounting of the evolution of the ,
, , , , energy
distribution functions alongside and self-consistently with the nuclear
reactions and entropy/heat generation and flow between the neutrino and
photon/electron/positron/baryon plasma components. This calculation reveals
nonlinear feedback in the time evolution of neutrino distribution functions and
plasma thermodynamic conditions (e.g., electron-positron pair densities), with
implications for: the phasing between scale factor and plasma temperature; the
neutron-to-proton ratio; light-element abundance histories; and the
cosmological parameter \neff. We find that our approach of following the time
development of neutrino spectral distortions and concomitant entropy production
and extraction from the plasma results in changes in the computed value of the
BBN deuterium yield. For example, for particular implementations of quantum
corrections in plasma thermodynamics, our calculations show a increase
in deuterium. These changes are potentially significant in the context of
anticipated improvements in observational and nuclear physics uncertainties.Comment: 37 pages, 12 Figures, 6 Table
Using Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to Extend CMB Probes of Neutrino Physics
We present calculations showing that upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB) experiments will have the power to improve on current constraints on
neutrino masses and provide new limits on neutrino degeneracy parameters. The
latter could surpass those derived from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the
observationally-inferred primordial helium abundance. These conclusions derive
from our Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) simulations which incorporate a full
BBN nuclear reaction network. This provides a self-consistent treatment of the
helium abundance, the baryon number, the three individual neutrino degeneracy
parameters and other cosmological parameters. Our analysis focuses on the
effects of gravitational lensing on CMB constraints on neutrino rest mass and
degeneracy parameter. We find for the PLANCK experiment that total (summed)
neutrino mass eV could be ruled out at or better.
Likewise neutrino degeneracy parameters and could be detected or ruled out at
confidence, or better. For POLARBEAR we find that the corresponding detectable
values are , , and , while for EPIC we obtain ,
, and . Our forcast for
EPIC demonstrates that CMB observations have the potential to set constraints
on neutrino degeneracy parameters which are better than BBN-derived limits and
an order of magnitude better than current WMAP-derived limits.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, matches published version in JCA
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