Resonant neutrino spin-flavor precession and supernova shock revival

Abstract

A new mechanism of supernova shock revival is proposed, which involves resonant spin--flavor precession of neutrinos with a transition magnetic moment in the magnetic field of the supernova. The mechanism can be operative in supernovae for transition magnetic moments as small as $10^{-14}{\mu }_B$ provided the neutrino mass squared difference is in the range $\Delta m^2\sim (3\mathrm{eV}{)}^2-(600\mathrm{eV}{)}^2$. It is shown that this mechanism can increase the neutrino--induced shock reheating energy by about 60\%.

Comments: 16 pages, latex, 2 figures. added few references