Supernova bounds on resonant active-sterile neutrino conversions
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 1997 papers
Abstract
We discuss the effects of resonant ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{e}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{s}$ and ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{s}$ $({\ensuremath{\nu}}_{s}$ is a sterile neutrino) conversions in the dense medium of a supernova. In particular, we assume the sterile neutrino ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{s}$ to be in the hot dark matter few eV mass range. The implications of such a scenario for the supernova shock reheating, the detected ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}$ signal from SN 1987A, and for the $r$-process nucleosynthesis hypothesis are analyzed in some detail. The resulting constraints on the mixing and mass difference for the ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{e}$-${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{s}$ system are derived. There is also an allowed region in the neutrino parameter space for which the $r$-process nucleosynthesis can be enhanced.