Matter-enhanced antineutrino flavor transformation and supernova nucleosynthesis

Abstract

Matter-enhanced antineutrino flavor transformation between ${\bar{\nu }}_e$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu (\tau )}$ can occur in supernovae if the vacuum masses for these species satisfy $m_{{\bar{\nu }}_e}>m_{{\bar{\nu }}_{\mu (\tau )}}$. For $\delta m^2>1$ eV${}^2$, such flavor transformation can affect the electron fraction $Y_e$ in the neutrino-heated supernova ejecta. We point out that such flavor transformation will not drive $Y_e>0.5$ at the $r$-process nucleosynthesis epoch in the best available supernova model for such nucleosynthesis. Consequently, there is no obvious conflict between matter-enhanced antineutrino flavor transformation ${\bar{\nu }}_e\rightleftharpoons {\bar{\nu }}_{\mu (\tau )}$ and $r$-process nucleosynthesis in the neutrino-heated supernova ejecta.

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