Constraining the onset density for the QCD phase transition with the neutrino signal from core-collapse supernovae

Understand

The occurrence of a first-order hadron-quark matter phase transition at high baryon densities is investigated in astrophysical simulations of core-collapse supernovae, to decipher yet incompletely understood properties of the dense matter equation of state (EOS) using neutrinos from such cosmic events.

• It is found that the emission of a nonstandard second neutrino burst, dominated by electron antineutrinos, is not only a measurable signal for the appearance of deconfined quark matter but also reveals information about the state of matter at extreme conditions encountered at the supernova (SN) interior.
• To this end, a large set of spherically symmetric SN models is investigated, studying the dependence on the EOS and the stellar progenitor.
• General relativistic neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics is employed featuring three-flavor Boltzmann neutrino transport and a microscopic hadron-quark hybrid matter EOS class.