Collective flavour transitions of supernova neutrinos

Abstract

When the neutrino density is very high, as in core-collapse supernovae, neutrino-neutrino interactions are not negligible and can appreciably affect the evolution of flavour. The physics of these phenomena is briefly highlighted, and their effects are shown on observable energy spectra from a future galactic supernova within two-neutrino and three-neutrino frameworks. Detection of such effects could provide a handle on two unknowns: the neutrino mass hierarchy, and the mixing angle theta(13).

Comments: 6 pages, including 7 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the XLIVth Rencontres de Moriond: Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy, 7-14 Mar 2009