Supernovae Could Confess Neutrinos’ Secrets

Abstract

N eutrinos are notoriously elusive. Interacting only via the weak force and gravity, they pass through regular baryonic matter almost unhindered. But like members of an exclusive social clique, neutrinos might be less standoffish among particles of their own type. Some beyond-standard-model theories predict a “secret” interaction that would cause neutrinos to scatter from one another when they gather at high enough densities. Po-Wen Chang at Ohio State University and his colleagues have now shown that, according to one neutrino-emission model, the effect of this neutrino self-interaction (νSI) could show up in future observations of supernovae [1].