Objectif
The intriguing phenomenon of neutrino flavour oscillations is now firmly believed to explain the solar neutrino deficit and the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. New experiments in Europe and elsewhere will further delimit the neutrino mixing parameters, the absolute neutrino masses, and their Majorana nature.
On the other hand, neutrino masses and oscillations can play an important role in astrophysics and cosmology that allows one to constrain the properties of these elusive particles in ways that are complementary to laboratory experiments, and conversely affect the interpretation of astrophysical neutrino data.
The proposed Marie Curie project is devoted to neutrino oscillations in the astrophysical context, and particularly in the context of supernova physics. The main goal is to investigate how supernova neutrinos are affected by small-scale density fluctuations generated during the early explosion phase. The spatial scales of these fluctuations can be of the same order as a typical neutrino oscillation length and thus strongly affect the oscillations.
The recent progress in numerical supernova research, notably in the Munich area, has led to three-dimensional simulations that should allow one to gain new insights into these questions. The oscillations in the presence of matter density fluctuations would modify both the neutrino flavour content and the energy spectra observable in neutrino detectors.
The supernova small-scale density fluctuations will be modelled, numerical methods describing neutrino osillations in the fluctuating supernova interior will be developed, and the experimental sensitivities of current and proposed neutrino detectors will be estimated.
This work will be crucial for the analysis of the neutrino signal from a future galactic supernova and for tuning the models. Moreover, the expected results will shed light on the understanding of the supernova shock reheating, the r-process nucleosynthesis, and the neutron-star kick phenomenon.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsneutrinos
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyphysical cosmology
- natural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsnumerical analysis
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomystellar astronomysupernova
Mots‑clés
Appel à propositions
FP6-2002-MOBILITY-7
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