Electron neutrino

Gravitational collapse

Physics

Supernova

Type II supernova

Neutrino oscillation

Neutrino

Nuclear physics

Neutron star

Astrophysics

Nucleosynthesis

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

Neutrinos are believed to have a key role in the explosion mechanism of core-collapse supernovae as they carry most of the energy released by the gravitational collapse of a massive star. If their flavor is converted fast inside the neutrino sphere, the supernova explosion may be influenced. This paper is reporting the results of the extended work of our previous paper. We perform a thorough survey of the electron lepton number (ELN) crossing in one of our self-consistent, realistic Boltzmann simulations in two spatial dimensions under axisymmetry for the existence of the crossings between ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{e}$ and ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}$ angular distributions, or the ELN crossing. We report for the first time the positive detections deep inside the core of the massive star in the vicinity of neutrino sphere at $r\ensuremath{\approx}16--21\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{km}$. We find that low values of the electron fraction ${Y}_{e}$ produced by convective motions together with the appearance of light elements are critically important to give rise to the ELN crossing by enhancing the chemical potential difference between proton and neutron, and hence by mitigating the Fermi-degeneracy of ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{e}$. Since the region of positive detection are sustained and, in fact, expanding with time, it may have an impact on the explosion of core-collapse supernovae, observational neutrino astronomy, and nucleosynthesis of heavy nuclei.

Fast collective neutrino oscillations inside the neutrino sphere in core-collapse supernovae