Neutrino Processes in Supernovae and the Physics of Protoneutron Star Winds

In preparation for a set of hydrodynamical simulations of core-collapse supernovae and protoneutron star winds, we investigate the rates of production and thermalization of $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$ neutrinos in dense nuclear matter. Included are contributions from electron scattering, electron-positron annihilation, nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung, and nucleon scattering. We find that nucleon scattering dominates electron scattering as a thermalization process at neutrino energies greater than $\sim$15 MeV. In addition, nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung dominates electron-positron annihilation as a production mechanism at low neutrino energies, near and below the $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$ neutrinospheres. Furthermore, we have begun a study of steady-state general relativistic protoneutron star winds employing simple neutrino heating and cooling terms. From this analysis we obtain acceleration profiles as well as asymptotic lepton fractions and baryon entropies essential in assessing the wind as a potential site for $r$-process nucleosynthesis.