Neutrinos from type II supernovae: The first 100 milliseconds

Eric S. Myra, Adam S. Burrows

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

82 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the neutrinos produced in stellar core collapse during infall and the first 100 ms following core bounce. We evolve a numerical model employing a one-dimensional, general-relativistic hydrodynamic code that incorporates the flux-limited multigroup neutrino transport of three flavors of neutrinos and their antiparticles. With a small (1.17 M), low-temperature iron core and a soft equation of state at supernuclear densities, we find no prompt explosion is obtained. We observe the prompt bursts of all types of neutrinos at shock breakout. In agreement with other calculations, the electron-neutrino burst is by far the largest. The other neutrino types show a sudden "turn-on" in luminosity. Our results indicate that emergent neutrino spectra of all species are "pinched" with respect to thermal distributions having zero chemical potential: spectra exhibit a deficit of both high and low energy neutrinos. The peak and the high-energy tails of these spectra are shown to be fitted by thermal distributions having nonzero chemical potentials. This result is potentially important for the interpretation of observations by terrestrial neutrino detectors, which typically sample the high-energy tail. It also affects neutrino-induced nucleosynthesis in supernova explosions and the viability of the late-time mechanism itself.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)222-231
Number of pages10
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume364
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 20 1990

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

Keywords

  • Neutrinos
  • Nuclear reactions
  • Stars: interiors
  • Stars: supernovae

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