11 research outputs found
Supernova Neutrino Spectra and Applications to Flavor Oscillations
We study the flavor-dependent neutrino spectra formation in the core of a
supernova (SN) by means of Monte Carlo simulations. A high-statistics neutrino
signal from a galactic SN may contain information that severely constrains the
parameter space for neutrino oscillations. Therefore, reliable predictions for
flavor-dependent fluxes and spectra are urgently needed. In all traditional
hydrodynamic simulations the nu_mu,tau and nu_mu,tau-bar interactions commonly
included are rather schematic. With our Monte Carlo simulations we find that
the most relevant sources for nu_mu,tau and nu_mu,tau-bar are traditionally not
included. In comparing our numerical results for all flavors we find the
standard hierarchy of mean energies nu_e < nu_e-bar < nu_mu,tau, with, however,
very similar values for nu_mu,tau and nu_e-bar. The luminosities of nu_mu,tau
and nu_mu,tau-bar can differ by up to a factor of 2 from L_nue-bar and L_nue,
the latter two are very similar. The Garching Group obtains similar results
from their self-consistent simulation with the full set of interactions. These
results are almost orthogonal to the previous standard picture of exactly equal
luminosities of all flavors and differences in mean energies of up to a factor
of 2. Existing concepts for identifying oscillation effects in a SN neutrino
signal need to be revised. We present two methods for detecting the
earth-matter effect that are rather independent of predictions from SN
simulations.Comment: 138pp, Dissertation, Technische Universitaet Muenche
Identifying Earth matter effects on supernova neutrinos at a single detector
The neutrino oscillations in Earth matter introduce modulations in the
supernova neutrino spectra. These modulations can be exploited to identify the
presence of Earth effects on the spectra, which would enable us to put a limit
on the value of the neutrino mixing angle and to identify whether
the mass hierarchy is normal or inverted. We demonstrate how the Earth effects
can be identified at a single detector without prior assumptions about the
flavor-dependent source spectra, using the Fourier transform of the
``inverse-energy'' spectrum of the signal. We explore the factors affecting the
efficiency of this method, and find that the energy resolution of the detector
is the most crucial one. In particular, whereas water Cherenkov detectors may
need a few ten thousand events to identify the Earth effects, a few thousand
may be enough at scintillation detectors, which generically have a much better
energy resolution. A successful identification of the Earth effects through
this method can also provide to a good accuracy. The
relative strength of the detected Earth effects as a function of time provides
a test for supernova models.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, JCAP format. Final version to be published in
JCAP. References and some minor clarifications added to the original versio
Monte Carlo Study of Supernova Neutrino Spectra Formation
The neutrino flux and spectra formation in a supernova core is studied by
using a Monte Carlo code. The dominant opacity contribution for nu_mu and
nu_tau is elastic scattering on nucleons. In addition we switch on or off a
variety of processes which allow for the exchange of energy or the creation and
destruction of neutrino pairs, notably nucleon bremsstrahlung, the e^+ e^- pair
annihilation process and nu_e-bar nu_e -> nu_{mu,tau} nu_{mu,tau}-bar, recoil
and weak magnetism in elastic nucleon scattering, elastic scattering on
electrons and positrons and elastic scattering on electron neutrinos and
anti-neutrinos. The least important processes are neutrino-neutrino scattering
and e^+ e^- annihilation. The formation of the spectra and fluxes of nu_mu is
dominated by the nucleonic processes, i.e. bremsstrahlung and elastic
scattering with recoil, but also nu_e nu_e-bar annihilation and nu_mu e^\pm
scattering contribute significantly. When all processes are included, the
spectral shape of the emitted neutrino flux is always ``pinched,'' i.e. the
width of the spectrum is smaller than that of a thermal spectrum with the same
average energy. In all of our cases we find that the average nu_mu-bar energy
exceeds the average nu_e-bar energy by only a small amount, 10% being a typical
number. Weak magnetism effects cause the opacity of nu_mu to differ slightly
from that of nu_mu-bar, translating into differences of the luminosities and
average energies of a few percent. Depending on the density, temperature, and
composition profile, the flavor-dependent luminosities L_{nu_e}$, L_{nu_e-bar},
and L_{nu_mu} can mutually differ from each other by up to a factor of two in
either direction.Comment: 33 pages, 16 eps-figs, submitted to ApJ. Sections added: weak
magnetism, discussion of different analytic fits to the spectra and detailed
spectral shap
Electron Neutrino Pair Annihilation: A New Source for Muon and Tau Neutrinos in Supernovae
We show that in a supernova core the annihilation process nu_e nu_e-bar ->
nu_{mu,tau} nu_{mu,tau}-bar is always more important than the traditional
reaction e^+ e^- -> nu_{mu,tau} nu_{mu,tau}-bar as a source for muon and tau
neutrino pairs. We study the impact of the new process by means of a Monte
Carlo transport code with a static stellar background model and by means of a
self-consistent hydrodynamical simulation with Boltzmann neutrino transport.
Nucleon bremsstrahlung NN -> NN nu_{mu,tau} nu_{mu,tau}-bar is also included as
another important source term. Taking into account nu_e nu_e-bar -> nu_{mu,tau}
nu_{mu,tau}-bar increases the nu_mu and nu_tau luminosities by as much as 20%
while the spectra remain almost unaffected. In our hydrodynamical simulation
the shock was somewhat weakened. Elastic nu_{mu,tau} nu_e and nu_{mu,tau} nu_e
scattering is not negligible but less important than nu_{mu,tau} e^+ or e^-
scattering. Its influence on the nu_{mu,tau} fluxes and spectra is small after
all other processes have been included.Comment: 11 pages, 9 eps-figs, submitted to Ap
Detecting the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy with a Supernova at IceCube
IceCube, a future km^3 antarctic ice Cherenkov neutrino telescope, is highly
sensitive to a galactic supernova (SN) neutrino burst. The Cherenkov light
corresponding to the total energy deposited by the SN neutrinos in the ice can
be measured relative to background fluctuations with a statistical precision
much better than 1%. If the SN is viewed through the Earth, the matter effect
on neutrino oscillations can change the signal by more than 5%, depending on
the flavor-dependent source spectra and the neutrino mixing parameters.
Therefore, IceCube together with another high-statistics experiment like
Hyper-Kamiokande can detect the Earth effect, an observation that would
identify specific neutrino mixing scenarios that are difficult to pin down with
long-baseline experiments. In particular, the normal mass hierarchy can be
clearly detected if the third mixing angle is not too small, sin^2 theta_13 <
10^-3. The small flavor-dependent differences of the SN neutrino fluxes and
spectra that are found in state-of-the-art simulations suffice for this
purpose. Although the absolute calibration uncertainty at IceCube may exceed
5%, the Earth effect would typically vary by a large amount over the duration
of the SN signal, obviating the need for a precise calibration. Therefore,
IceCube with its unique geographic location and expected longevity can play a
decisive role as a "co-detector" to measure SN neutrino oscillations. It is
also a powerful stand-alone SN detector that can verify the delayed-explosion
scenario.Comment: 19 pages, 6 Figs, final version accepted by JCAP, some references
adde
Gauged Inflation
We propose a model for cosmic inflation which is based on an effective
description of strongly interacting, nonsupersymmetric matter within the
framework of dynamical Abelian projection and centerization. The underlying
gauge symmetry is assumed to be with . Appealing to a
thermodynamical treatment, the ground-state structure of the model is
classically determined by a potential for the inflaton field (dynamical
monopole condensate) which allows for nontrivially BPS saturated and thereby
stable solutions. For this leads to decoupling of gravity from the
inflaton dynamics. The ground state dynamics implies a heat capacity for the
vacuum leading to inflation for temperatures comparable to the mass scale
of the potential. The dynamics has an attractor property. In contrast to the
usual slow-roll paradigm we have during inflation. As a consequence,
density perturbations generated from the inflaton are irrelevant for the
formation of large-scale structure, and the model has to be supplemented with
an inflaton independent mechanism for the generation of spatial curvature
perturbations. Within a small fraction of the Hubble time inflation is
terminated by a transition of the theory to its center symmetric phase. The
spontaneously broken symmetry stabilizes relic vector bosons in the
epochs following inflation. These heavy relics contribute to the cold dark
matter of the universe and potentially originate the UHECRs beyond the GZK
bound.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, subsection added, revision of text, to app. in
PR