We perform spherically symmetric simulations of the core collapse of a single progenitor star of zero age main sequence mass $M_{\rm ZAMS} = 15 \, M_{\odot}$ with two models of heavy sterile neutrinos in the mass range of hundred MeV$/c^2$. According to both models, these hypothetical particles are copiously produced in the center, stream outwards a subsequently decay releasing energy into final states (including neutrinos) of the Standard Model. We find that they can lead to a successful explosion in otherwise non-exploding progenitors. Depending on their unknown parameters (e.g., mass and coupling constants with matter), we obtain either no explosion or an explosion of one of two types, i.e., through heating of gas downstream of the stalled shock wave, similarly to the standard scenario for supernova explosions or through heating of gas at higher radii that ejects matter from the outer core or the envelope while the center continues to accrete matter. In both cases, the explosion energies can be very high. We presume that this new type of explosion would produce an electromagnetic signal that significantly differs from common events because of the relative absence of heavy elements in the ejecta. The combination of core-collapse simulations and astrophysical observations may further constrain the parameters of the sterile neutrinos.
The characteristics of the gravitational collapse of a supernova and the fluxes of active and sterile neutrinos produced during the formation of its protoneutron core have been calculated numerically. The relative yields of active and sterile neutrinos in core matter with different degrees of neutronization have been calculated for various input parameters and various initial conditions. A significant increase in the fraction of sterile neutrinos produced in superdense core matter at the resonant degree of neutronization has been confirmed. The contributions of sterile neutrinos to the collaps…
We summarize the impact of sterile neutrino dark matter on core-collapse supernova explosions. We explore various oscillations between electron neutrinos or mixed $μ-τ$ neutrinos and right-handed sterile neutrinos that may occur within a core-collapse supernova. In particular, we consider sterile neutrino masses and mixing angles that are consistent with sterile neutrino dark matter candidates as indicated by recent X-ray flux measurements. We find that the interpretation of the observed 3.5 keV X-ray excess as due to a decaying 7 keV sterile neutrino that comprises 100\% of the dark matter wo…
We have made core-collapse supernova simulations that allow oscillations between electron neutrinos (or their anti particles) with right-handed sterile neutrinos. We have considered a range of mixing angles and sterile neutrino masses including those consistent with sterile neutrinos as a dark matter candidate. We examine whether such oscillations can impact the core bounce and shock reheating in supernovae. We identify the optimum ranges of mixing angles and masses that can dramatically enhance the supernova explosion by efficiently transporting electron anti-neutrinos from the core to behind…
We explore the energy and entropy transport as well as the lepton number variation induced from the mixing between electron and sterile neutrinos with keV mass in the supernova core. We develop a radial- and time-dependent treatment of the sterile-electron neutrino mixing, by including ordinary matter effects, reconversions between sterile and electron antineutrinos, as well as the collisional production of sterile particles for the first time. The dynamical feedback due to the production of sterile particles on the composition and thermodynamic properties of the core only leads to major impli…
We have explored the impact of sterile neutrino dark matter on core-collapse supernova explosions. We have included oscillations between electron neutrinos or mixed $μ,τ$ neutrinos and right-handed sterile neutrinos into a supernova model. We have chosen sterile neutrino masses and mixing angles that are consistent with sterile neutrino dark matter candidates as indicated by recent x-ray flux measurements. Using these simulations, we have explored the impact of sterile neutrinos on the core bounce and shock reheating. We find that, for ranges of sterile neutrino mass and mixing angle consisten…
We investigate how hypothetical particles - sterile neutrinos - can be produced in the interior of exploding supernovae via the resonant conversion of $\barν_μ$ and $\bar ν_τ$. The novelty of our treatment lies in the proper account of the resulting lepton number diffusion. We compute the yield of sterile neutrinos and find that even after taking into account back reaction, sterile neutrinos can carry out a sizeable fraction of the total energy of the explosion comparable to that of active neutrinos. The production is, however, exponentially sensitive to the temperature in the inner supernovae…
The eV-scale sterile neutrino has been proposed to explain some anomalous results in experiments, \textit{such as} the deficit of reactor neutrino fluxes and the excess of $\barν_μ\to\barν_e$ in LSND. This hypothesis can be tested by future core-collapse supernova neutrino detection independently since the active-sterile mixing scheme affects the flavor conversion of neutrinos inside the supernova. In this work, we compute the predicted supernova neutrino events in future detectors -- DUNE, Hyper-K, and JUNO -- for neutrinos emitted during the neutronization burst phase when the luminosity of …
Heavy sterile neutrinos with masses ${\mathcal O}(100)$ MeV mixing with active neutrinos can be produced in the core of a collapsing supernova (SN). In order to avoid an excessive energy loss, shortening the observed duration of the SN 1987A neutrino burst, we show that the active-sterile neutrino mixing angle should satisfy $\sin^2 θ\lesssim 5 \times 10^{-7}$. For a mixing with tau flavour, this bound is much stronger than the ones from laboratory searches. Moreover, we show that in the viable parameter space the decay of such "heavy" sterile neutrinos in the SN envelope would lead to a very …
Sterile neutrinos are possible dark matter candidates. We examine here possible detection mechanisms, assuming that the neutrino has a mass of about 50 keV and couples to the ordinary neutrino. Even though this neutrino is quite heavy, it is non relativistic with a maximum kinetic energy of 0.1 eV. Thus new experimental techniques are required for its detection. We estimate the expected event rate in the following cases: i) Measure electron recoils in the case of materials with very low electron binding. ii) Low temperature crystal bolometers. iii) Spin induced atomic excitations at very low t…
The production of heavy-mass elements due to the rapid neutron-capture mechanism (r-process) is associated with astrophysical scenarios, such as supernovae and neutron-star mergers. In the r-process the capture of neutrons is followed by $β$-decays until nuclear stability is reached. A key element in the chain of nuclear weak-decays leading to the production of isotopes may be the change of the parameters controlling the neutrino sector, due to the mixing of active and sterile species. In this work we have addressed this question and calculated $β$-decay rates for the nuclei involved in the r-…
The excess of high energy neutrinos observed by the IceCube collaboration might originate from baryon number violating decays of heavy shadow baryons from dark mirror sector which produce shadow neutrinos. These sterile neutrino species then oscillate into ordinary neutrinos transferring to them specific features of their spectrum. In particular, this scenario can explain the end of the spectrum above 2 PeV and the presence of the energy gap between 400 TeV and 1 PeV.
Future neutrino detectors will obtain high-statistics data from a nearby core-collapse supernova. We study the mixing with eV-mass sterile neutrinos in a supernova environment and its effects on the active neutrino fluxes as detected by Hyper-Kamiokande and IceCube. Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis, we make projections for how accurately these experiments will measure the active-sterile mixing angle $θ_s$ given that there are substantial uncertainties on the expected luminosity and spectrum of active neutrinos from a galactic supernova burst. We find that Hyper-Kamiokande can reconstr…
A protoneutron star produced in a core-collapse supernova (CCSN) drives a wind by its intense neutrino emission. We implement active-sterile neutrino oscillations in a steady-state model of this neutrino-driven wind to study their effects on the dynamics and nucleosynthesis of the wind in a self-consistent manner. Using vacuum mixing parameters indicated by some experiments for a sterile $ν_s$ of $\sim 1$ eV in mass, we observe interesting features of oscillations due to various feedback. For the higher $ν_s$ mass values, we find that oscillations can reduce the mass loss rate and the wind vel…
Superluminal neutrinos are expected to lose energy due to bremstrauhlung. It is dominated by e+e--pair production if kinematically allowed. The same signature was used in searches for 3-body decays of hypothetical heavy sterile neutrinos. From the absence of these processes in CERN PS191 and CHARM experiments we set upper limits on the neutrino velocity in the energy range from 0.2 GeV to 280 GeV. Our limits are well below the neutrino velocity favored by the recent OPERA results. For energy-independent neutrino velocity the limits obtained in this paper are stronger than those coming from ICA…
We generalize gravitational particle production in a radiation-dominated $CPT$-symmetric universe to non-standard, but also $CPT$-symmetric early universe cosmologies. We calculate the mass of a right-handed "sterile" neutrino needed for it to be the cosmological dark matter. Since generically sterile neutrinos mix with the Standard Model active neutrinos, we use state-of-the-art tools to compute the expected spectrum of gamma rays and high-energy active neutrinos from ultra-heavy sterile neutrino dark matter decay. We demonstrate that the sterile neutrinos are never in thermal equilibrium in …
We discuss a model where a mixed warm and hot keV neutrino dark matter rises naturally. We arrange active and sterile neutrinos in the same $SU(3)_L$ multiplet, with the lightest sterile neutrino being dark matter. The other two heavy sterile neutrinos, through their out-of-equilibrium decay, contribute both to the dilution of dark matter density and its population, after freeze-out. We show that this model features all ingredients to overcome the overproduction of keV neutrino dark matter, and explore the phenomenological implications for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the number of relativisti…
