Collective neutrino flavor transitions in supernovae and the role of trajectory averaging

Non-linear effects on supernova neutrino oscillations, associated with neutrino self-interactions, are known to induce collective flavor transitions near the supernova core for theta_13 \neq 0. In scenarios with very shallow electron density profiles, these transformations have been shown to couple with ordinary matter effects, jointly producing spectral distortions both in normal and inverted hierarchy. In this work we consider a complementary scenario, characterized by higher electron density, as indicated by post-bounce shock-wave simulations. In this case, early collective flavor transitions are decoupled from later, ordinary matter effects. Moreover, such transitions become more amenable to both numerical computations and analytical interpretations in inverted hierarchy, while they basically vanish in normal hierarchy. We numerically evolve the neutrino density matrix in the region relevant for self-interaction effects. In the approximation of averaged intersection angle between neutrino trajectories, our simulations neatly show the collective phenomena of synchronization, bipolar oscillations, and spectral split, recently discussed in the literature. In the more realistic (but computationally demanding) case of non-averaged neutrino trajectories, our simulations do not show new significant features, apart from the smearing of ``fine structures'' such as bipolar nutations. Our results seem to suggest that, at least for non-shallow matter density profiles, averaging over neutrino trajectories plays a minor role in the final outcome. In this case, the swap of nu_e and nu_{\mu,\tau} spectra above a critical energy may represent an unmistakable signature of the inverted hierarchy, especially for theta_{13} small enough to render further matter effects irrelevant.Comment: v2 (27 pages, including 9 eps figures). Typos removed, references updated. Minor comments added. Corrected numerical errors in Eq.(6). Matches the published versio

Effect of Collective Flavor Oscillations on the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background

Collective flavor oscillations driven by neutrino-neutrino self interaction inside core-collapse supernovae have now been shown to bring drastic changes in the resultant neutrino fluxes. This would in turn significantly affect the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB), created by all core-collapse supernovae that have exploded in the past. In view of these collective effects, we re-analyze the potential of detecting the DSNB in currently running and planned large-scale detectors meant for detecting both electron neutrinos and antineutrinos. The next generation detectors should be able to observe DSNB fluxes. Under certain conducive conditions, one could learn about neutrino parameters. For instance, it might be possible to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, even if theta_{13} is almost zero.Comment: Ver3 (24 pages, 4 figures and 4 tables): Reference added. Figure 1 corrected. Misprints corrected. Acknowledgment added. No changes in results. Supercedes the version published in JCA