Neutrino Emission from Supernovae

Understand

Supernovae are the most powerful cosmic sources of MeV neutrinos.

• These elementary particles play a crucial role when the evolution of a massive star is terminated by the collapse of its core to a neutron star or a black hole and the star explodes as supernova.
• The release of electron neutrinos, which are abundantly produced by electron captures, accelerates the catastrophic infall and causes a gradual neutronization of the stellar plasma by converting protons to neutrons as dominant constituents of neutron star matter.
• The emission of neutrinos and antineutrinos of all flavors carries away the gravitational binding energy of the compact remnant and drives its evolution from the hot initial to the cold final state.