Related papers: Heavy sterile neutrinos in stellar core-collapse
At the present time even the most sophisticated, multi-dimensional simulations of core-collapse supernovae do not (self-consistently) include neutrino flavor transformation. This physics is missing despite the importance of neutrinos in the…
Massive stars undergoing iron core-collapse at the end of their evolution terminate their lives either in successful or failed supernovae (SNe). The physics of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) is complex, and their understanding requires…
Thus far, judging the fate of a massive star (either a neutron star (NS) or a black hole) solely by its structure prior to core collapse has been ambiguous. Our work and previous attempts find a non-monotonic variation of successful and…
We consider heavy sterile neutrinos $\nu_s$, with mass in the range 10 MeV $\lesssim m_s \lesssim m_{\pi} \sim 135$ MeV, thermally produced in the early universe and freezing out after the QCD phase transition. The existence of these…
(Abridged) We present results from dynamical models of core-collapse supernovae in one spatial dimension, employing a newly-developed Boltzmann neutrino radiation transport algorithm, coupled to Lagrangean hydrodynamics and a consistent…
Much controversy surrounds the inferred progenitor masses of Type II-Plateau (II-P) supernovae (SNe). The debate is nourished by the discrepant results from radiation-hydrodynamics simulations, from pre-explosion imaging, and from studies…
We discuss weak kaon decays in a scenario in which the Standard Model is extended by massive sterile fermions. After revisiting the analytical expressions for leptonic and semileptonic decays we derive the expressions for decay rates with…
Core-collapse supernovae are connected with formation of neutron stars. Part of the gravitation energy is transformed into the energy of the explosion, observed in SN II, SN Ib,c type supernovae. The mechanism of transformation is not…
Neutrinos at energies above TeV can serve as probes of the stellar progenitor and jet dynamics of gamma ray bursts arising from stellar core collapses. They can also probe collapses which do not lead to gamma-rays, which may be much more…
We present new 1D (spherical) and 2D (axisymmetric) simulations of electron-capture (EC) and low-mass iron-core-collapse supernovae (SN). We consider six progenitor models: the ECSN progenitor from Nomoto (1984, 1987); two ECSN-like…
Neutrinos emitted during the collapse, bounce and subsequent explosion provide information about supernova dynamics. The neutrino spectra are determined by weak interactions with nuclei and nucleons in the inner regions of the star, and…
We investigate a method to construct parametrized progenitor models for core-collapse supernova simulations. Different from all modern core-collapse supernova studies, which rely on progenitor models from stellar evolution calculations, we…
In the standard supernova picture, type Ib/c and type II supernovae are powered by the potential energy released in the collapse of the core of a massive star. In studying supernovae, we primarily focus on the ejecta that makes it beyond…
The question of whether the massive sterile neutrinos exist remains a crucial unresolved issue in both particle physics and cosmology. We explore the cosmological constraints on the massive sterile neutrinos using the latest observational…
One of the central problems in supernova theory is the question how massive stars explode. Understanding the physical processes that drive the explosion is crucial for linking the stellar progenitors to the final remnants and for predicting…
Before massive stars heavier than $(8 \cdots 10)$ solar masses evolve to the phase of a gravitational core collapse, they will emit a huge number of MeV-energy neutrinos that are mainly produced in the thermal processes and nuclear weak…
The explosion of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) is an extremely challenging problem, and there are still large uncertainties regarding which stars lead to successful explosions that leave behind a neutron star, and which ones will form a…
We have conducted nineteen state-of-the-art 3D core-collapse supernova simulations spanning a broad range of progenitor masses. This is the largest collection of sophisticated 3D supernova simulations ever performed. We have found that…
In certain mass ranges, massive stars can undergo a violent pulsation triggered by the electron/positron pair instability that ejects matter, but does not totally disrupt the star. After one or more of these pulsations, such stars are…
A laboratory detection of a sterile neutrino could provide the first indication of the evolution of the Universe before Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), an epoch yet untested. Such "visible" sterile neutrinos are observable in upcoming…