Fast Flavor Depolarization of Supernova Neutrinos Article Swipe

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neutrino physics supernova neutrino oscillation phenomenology (philosophy) particle physics depolarization measurements of neutrino speed type ii supernova astrophysics nuclear physics solar neutrino endocrinology epistemology medicine philosophy

Soumya Bhattacharyya , Basudeb Dasgupta ·

YOU? · · 2021 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.126.061302 · OA: W3084055857

Flavor-dependent neutrino emission is critical to the evolution of a supernova and its neutrino signal. In the dense anisotropic interior of the star, neutrino- forward scattering can lead to fast collective neutrino oscillations, which has striking consequences. We present a theory of fast flavor depolarization, explaining how neutrino flavor differences become smaller, i.e., depolarize, due to diffusion to smaller angular scales. We show that transverse relaxation determines the epoch of this irreversible depolarization. We give a method to compute the depolarized fluxes, presenting an explicit formula for simple initial conditions, which can be a crucial input for supernova theory and neutrino phenomenology.