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arXiv · 2610.36486

Three-flavor neutrino Boltzmann transport and flavor instabilities in long-lived neutron-star merger remnants

Harry Ho-Yin Ng·Jiabao Liu·Arthur Offermans·Shoichi Yamada·Elias R. Most·Luciano Rezzolla
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Abstract

Binary neutron-star (BNS) mergers are multimessenger sources whose kilonova emission and nucleosynthesis depend sensitively on neutrino microphysics and flavor conversion. Most BNS merger simulations assume $μ$-$τ$ neutrino degeneracy in a two-flavor treatment. We investigate the fast flavor instability (FFI) and the collisional flavor instability (CFI) in long-lived BNS merger remnants using axisymmetric general-relativistic three-flavor Boltzmann neutrino transport with a comprehensive treatment of muons and muonic interactions, following a handoff from 3D grey moment-based simulations. Our simulations largely reproduce the parent 3D simulations, recovering trapped weak equilibrium in the core, muonic non-equilibrium in the semitransparent outer disk due to prolonged demuonization, and cold weak equilibrium in transparent regions. Linear stability analysis reveals strong and widespread CFI in all three flavor sectors, including narrow resonance-like structures. Muonic interactions reshape the FFI distribution, shifting the $eτ$-sector instability toward denser disk regions compared with the extended FFI outside the disk in the two-flavor model, while disk demuonization produces a strong $ν_μ$ excess and one-sided muon-lepton-number angular distributions that suppress FFI in the $eμ$ and $μτ$ sectors. Local three-flavor quantum kinetic equation (QKE) calculations reveal nonlinear coupling among flavor sectors that excites coherence even in an initially stable sector. Diagonal collisional repopulation is decisive for the nonlinear evolution and asymptotic flavor populations, and neglecting it overestimates flavor equilibration. We establish the necessity of three-flavor transport from both classical and quantum perspectives, and underscore the importance of consistently coupling flavor conversion with diagonal collisional repopulation in future CFI subgrid models.

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Harry Ho-Yin Ng, Jiabao Liu, Arthur Offermans, Shoichi Yamada, Elias R. Most, Luciano Rezzolla. 2026-10-27. Three-flavor neutrino Boltzmann transport and flavor instabilities in long-lived neutron-star merger remnants. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36486

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