Probing the Origins of Neutrino Mass with Supernova Data

Abstract

We study type II supernova signatures of neutrino mass generation via symmetry breaking at a scale in the range from keV to MeV. The scalar responsible for symmetry breaking can be thermalized in the supernova core and restore the symmetry. The neutrinos from scalar decays have about half the average energy of thermal neutrinos and are Bose-Einstein distributed. We find that, even without a detailed knowledge of the supernova parameters, a discovery is well within reach at Super-Kamiokande.Comment: Revised calculations and references added. Abstract and conclusions unchanged. 4 pages, no figure