scholarly journals PULSAR KICKS FROM NEUTRINO OSCILLATIONS

2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2065-2084 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER KUSENKO

Neutrino oscillations in a core-collapse supernova may be responsible for the observed rapid motions of pulsars. Given the present bounds on the neutrino masses, the pulsar kicks require a sterile neutrino with mass 2–20 keV and a small mixing with the active neutrinos. The same particle can be the cosmological dark matter. Its existence can be confirmed the by the X-ray telescopes if they detect a 1–10 keV photon line from the decays of the relic sterile neutrinos. In addition, one may be able to detect gravity waves from a pulsar being accelerated by neutrinos in the event of a nearby supernova.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (25) ◽  
pp. 1650137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mackenzie L. Warren ◽  
Grant J. Mathews ◽  
Matthew Meixner ◽  
Jun Hidaka ◽  
Toshitaka Kajino

We summarize the impact of sterile neutrino dark matter on core-collapse supernova explosions. We explore various oscillations between electron neutrinos or mixed [Formula: see text] neutrinos and right-handed sterile neutrinos that may occur within a core-collapse supernova. In particular, we consider sterile neutrino masses and mixing angles that are consistent with sterile neutrino dark matter candidates as indicated by recent X-ray flux measurements. We find that the interpretation of the observed 3.5 keV X-ray excess as due to a decaying 7 keV sterile neutrino that comprises 100% of the dark matter would have almost no observable effect on supernova explosions. However, in the more realistic case in which the decaying sterile neutrino comprises only a small fraction of the total dark matter density due to the presence of other sterile neutrino flavors, WIMPs, etc. a larger mixing angle is allowed. In this case a 7 keV sterile neutrino could have a significant impact on core-collapse supernovae. We also consider mixing between [Formula: see text] neutrinos and sterile neutrinos. We find, however, that this mixing does not significantly alter the explosion and has no observable effect on the neutrino luminosities at early times.



2019 ◽  
Vol 625 ◽  
pp. L7 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Hofmann ◽  
C. Wegg

Context. An unidentified emission line at 3.55 keV was recently detected in X-ray spectra of clusters of galaxies. The line has been discussed as a possible decay signature of 7.1 keV sterile neutrinos, which have been proposed as a dark matter (DM) candidate. Aims. We aim to further constrain the line strength and its implied mixing angle under the assumption that all DM is made of sterile neutrinos. Methods. The X-ray observations of the Limiting Window (LW) towards the Galactic bulge (GB) offer a unique dataset for exploring DM lines. We characterise the systematic uncertainties of the observation and the fitted models with simulated X-ray spectra. In addition, we discuss uncertainties of indirect DM column density constraints towards the GB to understand systematic uncertainties in the assumed DM mass in the field of view of the observation. Results. We find tight constraints on the allowed flux for an additional line at 3.55 keV with a positive (∼1.5σ) best fit value FX3.55 keV ≈ (4.5 ± 3.5) × 10−7 cts cm−2 s−1. This would translate into a mixing angle of sin2(2Θ) ≈ (2.3 ± 1.8) × 10−11 which, while consistent with some recent results, is in tension with earlier detections. Conclusions. We used a very deep dataset with well understood systematic uncertainties to derive tight constraints on the mixing angle of a 7.1 keV sterile neutrino DM candidate. The results highlight that the inner Milky Way will be a good target for DM searches with upcoming missions like eROSITA, XRISM, and ATHENA.



2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (13) ◽  
pp. 1530033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun Zhou

Sterile neutrinos of keV masses are one of the most promising candidates for the warm dark matter, which could solve the small-scale problems encountered in the scenario of cold dark matter. We present a detailed study of the production of such sterile neutrinos in a supernova core, and derive stringent bounds on the active-sterile neutrino mixing angles and sterile neutrino masses based on the standard energy-loss argument.



2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. Gninenko ◽  
D. S. Gorbunov ◽  
M. E. Shaposhnikov

Standard Model fails to explain neutrino oscillations, dark matter, and baryon asymmetry of the Universe. All these problems can be solved with three sterile neutrinos added to SM. Quite remarkably, if sterile neutrino masses are well below the electroweak scale, this modification—Neutrino Minimal Standard Model (νMSM)—can be tested experimentally. We discuss a new experiment on search for decays of GeV-scale sterile neutrinos, which are responsible for the matter-antimatter asymmetry generation and for the active neutrino masses. If lighter than 2 GeV, these particles can be produced in decays of charm mesons generated by high energy protons in a target, and subsequently decay into SM particles. To fully explore this sector ofνMSM, the new experiment requires data obtained with at least1020incident protons on target (achievable at CERN SPS in future) and a big volume detector constructed from a large amount of identical single modules, with a total sterile neutrino decay length of few kilometers. The preliminary feasibility study for the proposed experiment shows that it has sensitivity which may either lead to the discovery of new particles below the Fermi scale—right-handed partners of neutrinos—or rule out seesaw sterile neutrinos with masses below 2 GeV.



2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 1850116 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Saez ◽  
O. Civitarese ◽  
M. E. Mosquera

Neutrino-induced reactions are a basic ingredient in astrophysical processes like star evolution. The existence of neutrino oscillations affects the rate of nuclear electroweak decays which participates in the chain of events that determines the fate of the star. Among the processes of interest, the production of heavy elements in core-collapse supernovae is strongly dependent upon neutrino properties, like the mixing between different species of neutrinos. In this work, we study the effects of neutrino oscillations upon the electron fraction as a function of the neutrino mixing parameters, for two schemes: the [Formula: see text]-scheme (one active neutrino and one sterile neutrino) and the [Formula: see text]-scheme (two active neutrinos and one sterile neutrino). We have performed this analysis considering a core-collapse supernovae and determined the physical conditions needed to activate the nuclear reaction chains involved in the r-process. We found that the interactions of the neutrinos with matter and among themselves and the initial amount of sterile neutrinos in the neutrino-sphere might change the electron fraction, therefore affecting the onset of the r-process. We have set constrains on the active-sterile neutrino mixing parameters. They are the square-mass-difference [Formula: see text], the mixing angle [Formula: see text], and the hindrance factor [Formula: see text] for the occupation of sterile neutrinos. The calculations have been performed for different values of [Formula: see text], which is the fraction of [Formula: see text]-particles. For [Formula: see text] the r-process is taking place if [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. For larger values of [Formula: see text] the region of parameters is strongly reduced. The present results are compared to results available in the literature.



Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Lucia Aurelia Popa

We place constraints on DM sterile neutrino scalar decay production (SDP) assuming that sterile neutrinos representa fraction from the total Cold Dark Matter energy density. For the cosmological analysis we complement the CMB anisotropy measurements with CMB lensing gravitational potential measurements, that are sensitive to the DM distribution to high redshifts and with the cosmic shear data that constrain the gravitational potential at lower redshifts than CMB. We also use the most recent low-redshift BAO measurements that are insensitive to the non-linear effects, providing robust geometrical tests. We show that our datasets have enough sensitivity to constrain the sterile neutrino mass mνs and the mass fraction fS inside the co-moving free-streaming horizon. We find that the best fit value mνs=7.88±0.73 keV (68% CL) is in the parameter space of interest for DM sterile neutrino decay interpretation of the 3.5 keV X-ray line and that fS=0.86±0.07 (68% CL) is in agreement with the upper limit constraint on fS from the X-ray non-detection and Ly-α forest measurements that rejects fS=1 at 3σ. However, we expect that the future BAO and weak lensing surveys, such as EUCLID, will provide much more robust constraints.



2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (21) ◽  
pp. 1444006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Luo

If three standard neutrinos mix with other degree of freedoms like sterile neutrinos, no matter how heavy the sterile neutrino masses are, it could result in the unitarity violation in the MNSP matrix. Nevertheless, the unitarity violation induced by the existence of light or heavy sterile neutrinos can have very different effects on neutrino oscillations, we call the former case direct unitarity violation and the later case the indirect unitarity violation. We will explain in this paper the difference of these two kinds of unitarity violations, then focus on the possibilities of searching the unitarity violation in neutrino oscillation experiments, of which the precision reactor experiments with multiple baselines are discussed in detail.



2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Koss ◽  
Stefan Immler ◽  
Stefan Immler ◽  
Kurt Weiler


Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 367 (6485) ◽  
pp. 1465-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Dessert ◽  
Nicholas L. Rodd ◽  
Benjamin R. Safdi

Observations of nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters have reported an unexpected x-ray emission line around 3.5 kilo–electron volts (keV). Proposals to explain this line include decaying dark matter—in particular, that the decay of sterile neutrinos with a mass around 7 keV could match the available data. If this interpretation is correct, the 3.5-keV line should also be emitted by dark matter in the halo of the Milky Way. We used more than 30 megaseconds of XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission) blank-sky observations to test this hypothesis, finding no evidence of the 3.5-keV line emission from the Milky Way halo. We set an upper limit on the decay rate of dark matter in this mass range, which is inconsistent with the possibility that the 3.5-keV line originates from dark matter decay.



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