Production of unstable heavy neutrinos in proto-neutron stars

الأصل · EN

We discuss the production of a class of heavy sterile neutrinos νₕ in proto-neutron stars. The neutrinos, of mass around 50 MeV, have a negligible mixing with the active species but relatively large dimension-5 electromagnetic couplings. In particular, a magnetic dipole moment μ≈ 10⁻⁶ GeV⁻¹ implies that they are thermally produced through e+ e-→ νₕ νₕ in the early phase of the core collapse, whereas a heavy--light transition moment μ tr≈ 10⁻⁸ GeV⁻¹ allows their decay νₕ→ νᵢ γ with a lifetime around 10⁻³ s. This type of electromagnetic couplings has been recently proposed to explain the excess of electron-like events in baseline experiments. We show that the production and decay of these heavy neutrinos would transport energy from the central regions of the star to distances d≈ 400 km, providing a very efficient mechanism to enhance the supernova shock front and heat the material behind it.