TAPIR Seminar

Nucleosynthetic Signatures of Supernova Neutrinos

Luke Roberts, Lee Dubridge Postdoctoral Scholar, Theoretical Astrophysics, Caltech,

After a successful core collapse supernova explosion, a neutron star is often left as a compact remnant.
During the first minute of the neutron star's life, it cools and contracts by emitting a prodigious number
of neutrinos. These neutrinos deposit enough energy at the surface of the young neutron star to unbind
a significant amount of material and eject it as a wind. Since most of the heating is provided by charged
current interactions, the composition of the wind is shaped by the properties of the emitted neutrinos.
Depending on the neutrino spectra and dynamics of the wind, r-process nucleosynthesis, p-process
nucleosynthesis, or the N = 50 closed shell elements Sr, Y, and Zr may be produced in this environment.
I will present models of proto-neutron star neutrino emission and of the neutrino driven wind. Then I will
discuss how wind nucleosynthesis depends on properties of the proto-neutron star and the nuclear equation
of state.

Event Sponsors:

Theoretical AstroPhysics Including Relativity and Cosmology (TAPIR) - More events from this Sponsor

For more information, please contact JoAnn Boyd by phone at 4280 or by email at [email protected].