Effects of Neutrino-Matter Interactions on Neutrino Quantum Dynamics in
Astrophysical Environments
Image Source: https://www.jlab.org/news/releases/electrons-set-stage-neutrino-experiments-0
Student:
Leo Ahlburg
Mentors:
Vincenzo Cirigliano (INSPIRE-HEP, email: cirigv@uw.edu)
Yukari Yamauchi (INSPIRE-HEP, email: yyama122@uw.edu)
Prerequisites:
Basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, and basic coding skills, which will be refined during the project.
What Students Will Learn:
The student will learn how neutrinos evolve in a hot and dense astrophysical medium. The first step will involve studying a quantum mechanical treatment of the neutrino dynamics based on the Standard Model. Then the student will learn a few numerical frameworks for simulating neutrino evolution. The student will formulate the relevant neutrino-matter interactions in the same language as in Ref. [1]. Finally, the student will implement and perform numerical simulations. The student will explore the interplay between neutrino vacuum oscillations, self-interactions, and matter effects in various astrophysical settings.
Expected Project Length:
One year
Project Description:
Neutrinos are perhaps the most mysterious and elusive of the known particles, because they interact very weakly and have tiny masses, the heaviest neutrino being at least a million times lighter than the lightest charged particle. Yet, they play a crucial role in the early universe and the evolution of stars, as in these environments neutrinos are copiously produced and transport most of the energy and entropy. Moreover, observations of solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator neutrinos indicate that a neutrino produced in a given flavor state (electron, muon, or tau) can morph to another flavor state as it evolves, through a quantum mechanical interference effect. In turn, these so-called neutrino oscillations can have a big impact on the neutron-to-proton ratio, a key quantity in determining what elements are synthesized in the early universe and the ejecta surrounding supernovae and neutron star mergers. Employing the neutrino interactions established in Ref. [1], this project will explore effects of neutrino-matter interactions on the evolution of such neutrino quantum many-body systems.
References:
1] V. Cirigliano, S. Sen, and Y. Yamauchi, Neutrino many-body flavor evolution: the full Hamiltonian (2024), arXiv:2404.16690
[hep-ph].