Abstract
Matter-enhanced antineutrino flavor transformation between ν̄e and ν̄μ(τ) can occur in supernovas if the vacuum masses for these species satisfy mν̄e>mν̄μ(τ). For δm2>1 eV2, such flavor transformation can affect the electron fraction Ye in the neutrino-heated supernova ejecta. We point out that such flavor transformations will not drive Ye>0.5 at the r-process nucleosynthesis epoch in the best available supernova model for such nucleosynthesis. Consequently, there is no obvious conflict between the matter-enhanced antineutrino flavor transformation ν̄eν̄μ(τ) and r-process nucleosynthesis in the neutrino-heated supernova ejecta.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 656-660 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Physical Review D |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1995 |