arXiv subjects

Shashank Shalgar

Publications and source records attributed to Shashank Shalgar.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Can we ignore the time dependence in matter neutrino resonance?

In the vicinity of neutron star mergers (NSMs), it is possible for the neutrino self-interaction potential to cancel with the matter potential leading to matter neutrino resonance (MNR). MNR is one of the most interesting mechanisms by which neutrino flavor evolution can occur in dense astrophysical environments. Previous studies have typically assumed that the neutrino flavor field evolves to a steady state -- a simplification also used in other self-interaction models such as the neutrino-bulb model. Here, we perform reproducible calculations of MNR using both time-independent and time-dependent formalisms and show that they yield qualitatively different flavor survival probabilities. The time-independent approach produces unstable steady-state solutions that differ fundamentally from the dynamical behavior captured in time-dependent simulations. These results demonstrate that the steady-state assumption is generally invalid, and physical interpretations based on time-independent calculations of dense neutrino systems require re-evaluation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Electron-neutrino lepton number crossings: Variations with the supernova core physics

A crucial ingredient affecting fast neutrino flavor conversion in core-collapse supernovae (SNe) is the shape of the angular distribution of the electron-neutrino lepton number (ELN). The presence of an ELN crossing signals favorable conditions for flavor conversion. However, the dependence of ELN crossings on the SN properties is only partially understood. We investigate a suite of 12 spherically symmetric neutrino-hydrodynamics simulations of the core collapse of a SN with a mass of $18.6 M_\odot$; each model employs different microphysics (i.e., three different nuclear equations of state, with and without muon creation) and includes or not a mixing-length treatment for proto-neutron star convection. We solve the Boltzmann equations to compute the neutrino angular distributions relying on static fluid properties extracted from each of the SN simulations in our suite for six selected post-bounce times. We explore the dependence of the ELN distributions on the SN microphysics and proto-neutron star convection. We find that the latter shifts the proto-neutron star radius outwards, favoring the appearance of ELN crossings at larger radii. On the other hand, muon creation causes proto-neutron star contraction, facilitating the occurrence of ELN crossings at smaller radii. These effects mildly depend on the nuclear equation of state. Our findings highlight the subtle impact of the SN microphysics, proto-neutron star convection, and neutrino transport on the ELN angular distributions.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Robustness of Solutions of the Quantum Kinetic Equations in the Presence of Matter Density Fluctuations

We investigate the role of fluctuations in the matter density on neutrino flavor evolution by studying their effects on the collision terms in the spherically symmetric quantum kinetics equations (QKEs). We solve the QKEs with varying radial resolution ($r_{\mathrm{bins}} = 150 \, , 1500 \, , 15000$) to assess numerical convergence in angular distributions, number densities, and energy spectra for four neutrino flavors ($ν_e$, $\barν_e$, $ν_x$, $\barν_x$). Our results demonstrate that the solutions are numerically converged already at the coarsest resolution, with higher resolutions yielding almost identical outcomes. We introduce random perturbations to each radial bin, thus adding perturbations with a length scale that is related to the radial resolution. We study both time-independent and time-dependent perturbations to the matter density that affect the collision term and analyze their effects on neutrino flavor evolution. We find that such fluctuations do not induce any significant instabilities or qualitative changes in flavor evolution. Angular structure remains robust, and flavor-dependent number densities and energy spectra show only minor deviations compared to the unperturbed case. These findings suggest that matter perturbations have a negligible effect on neutrino flavor evolution in spherically symmetric settings.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Position drift with Gaia

The proper motion (also known as position drift) field of extragalactic sources at cosmological distances across our sky can be used to measure the acceleration of the Solar System through the aberration effect. If measured very precisely, the signal would also hold cosmological information, for instance about bulk flows of distant sources or the presence of tensor modes. In the $Λ$ cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) model, the acceleration of the Solar System is by far the dominant contributor to the position drift signal for sources at cosmological distances, and the measurement is therefore expected to yield a constant spheroidal dipole across redshifts as long as convergence to the cosmic restframe has been reached. The aim of this paper is to test this hypothesis. We analyze data from the cosmic reference frame dataset of Gaia data release 3 focusing on constraining the dipole and quadrupole in the position drift signal, with an emphasis on redshift dependence of the signal as a consistency test of the $Λ$CDM model. The spheroidal dipole that we find is in mild tension, at the level of $2-3σ$, with the constant-in-redshift signature expected from the local acceleration of the Solar System. We also find significant quadrupole components, that however do not have any significant evolution with redshift. The most straightforward interpretation of these findings is (unknown) systematic errors related to the Gaia instrumentation, but a cosmological origin is a possibility. Our analysis remains inconclusive on the cause of the redshift dependence of the dipole and warrants further investigations with upcoming data releases. We discuss possible implications of our results and highlight the importance of proper motion measurements for rest frame determinations in cosmology. In our discussion, we highlight interesting avenues for doing cosmology with Gaia data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Non-conservation of Lepton Numbers in the Neutrino Sector Could Change the Prospects for Core Collapse Supernova Explosions

We show that interactions violating the conservation of lepton numbers in the neutrino sector could significantly alter the standard low entropy picture for the pre-supernova collapsing core of a massive star. A rapid neutrino-antineutrino equilibration leads to entropy generation and enhanced electron capture and, hence, a lower electron fraction than in the standard model. This would affect the downstream core evolution, the prospects for a supernova explosion, and the emergent neutrino signal. If realized by lepton-number-violating neutrino self-interactions (LNV $ν$SI), the relevant mediator mass and coupling ranges can be probed by future accelerator-based experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Pauli blocking: probing beyond-mean-field effects in neutrino flavor evolution

Neutrino quantum kinetics in dense astrophysical environments is investigated relying on the mean-field approximation. In this paper, we heuristically explore whether beyond-mean-field effects due to neutrino degeneracy could hinder flavor instabilities that are otherwise foreseen. Our results show that these corrections shift the stability regions for a suite of (anti)neutrino ensembles: the flavor conversion of previously unstable distributions can be damped, but angular distributions that are stable in the mean-field case can also become unstable. Our work should serve as a motivation to further investigate the limitations of the mean-field treatment.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Neutrino quantum kinetics in three flavors

The impact of neutrino flavor conversion on the supernova mechanism is yet to be fully understood. We present multi-energy and multi-angle solutions of the neutrino quantum kinetic equations in three flavors, without employing any attenuation term for the neutrino self-interaction strength and taking into account neutrino advection and non-forward collisions with the background medium. Flavor evolution is explored within a spherically symmetric shell surrounding the region of neutrino decoupling in the interior of a core-collapse supernova, relying on the output of a spherically symmetric core-collapse supernova model with a progenitor mass of $18.6 M_\odot$. We select two representative post-bounce times: $t_{\rm pb} = 0.25$ s (no angular crossings are present and flavor conversion is triggered by slow collective effects) and $t_{\rm pb} = 1$ s (angular crossings trigger fast flavor instabilities). We find that flavor equipartition is achieved for the late post-bounce time ($t_{\rm pb} = 1$ s), where the (anti)neutrino emission properties among different flavors tend to approach each other. In this case, $\bar\nu_e$ tends to $\bar\nu_x = (\bar\nu_\mu + \bar\nu_\tau)/2$ and a similar trend holds for neutrinos. However, flavor equipartition does not occur for our early post-bounce time ($t_{\rm pb} = 0.25$ s). Accounting for weak-magnetism corrections, crossings in the $\mu$ and $\tau$ lepton number angular distributions arise; however, such crossings have a magnitude smaller than the one occurring in the electron sector and negligibly affect flavor evolution. Because of flavor conversion, the neutrino heating rate increases up to $30\%$ with respect to the case where flavor conversion is neglected.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Neutrino quantum kinetics in two spatial dimensions

Our understanding of neutrino flavor conversion in the innermost regions of core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers is mostly limited to spherically symmetric configurations that facilitate the numerical solution of the quantum kinetic equations. In this paper, we simulate neutrino quantum kinetics within a (2+1+1) dimensional setup: we model the flavor evolution during neutrino decoupling from matter in two spatial dimensions, one neutrino momentum variable, and time; taking into account non-forward neutral current and charged current collisions of neutrinos with the matter background, as well as neutrino advection. In order to mimic fluctuations in the neutrino emission and matter background, and explore their effect on the flavor evolution, we introduce perturbations in the collision term as well as in the vacuum term of the Hamiltonian. Because of such perturbations, the initial symmetry of the neutrino field across the simulation annulus is broken and flavor conversion is qualitatively affected, with regions of larger flavor conversion alternating across the simulation annulus. In addition, neutrino advection is responsible for spreading flavor waves across neighboring spatial regions. Although based on a simplified setup, our findings highlight the importance of modeling neutrino quantum kinetics in multi-dimensions to assess the impact of neutrinos on the physics of compact astrophysical sources and nucleosynthesis.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Neutrino quantum kinetics in a core-collapse supernova

Our understanding of neutrino flavor conversion in the supernova core is still preliminary, despite its likely relevance to the neutrino-driven supernova mechanism. We present multi-angle and multi-energy numerical simulations of neutrino quantum kinetics within a spherically symmetric shell in the proximity of the region of neutrino decoupling. We rely on inputs from a one-dimensional core-collapse supernova model with a mass of $18.6\ M_\odot$ and find that, at early post-bounce times ($t_{\mathrm pb} \lesssim 0.5$~s), no crossing is present in the angular distribution of the electron neutrino lepton number and flavor conversion is triggered by slow collective instabilities. Angular crossings appear for $t_{\textrm{pb}} \gtrsim 0.5$~s and fast flavor conversion leads to flavor equipartition, with the spectral energy distribution of $ν_{e}$ ($\barν_{e}$) and $ν_{x}$ ($\barν_{x}$) becoming comparable. Notably, flavor equipartition is not a generic outcome of fast flavor conversion, rather it is a consequence of the relatively similar properties of neutrinos of different flavors characterizing the late accretion phase. Artificially tweaking the collision term to introduce an electron lepton number angular crossing for $t_{\mathrm{pb}} \lesssim 0.05$~s, we observe that flavor equipartition is not achieved. While our findings are restricted to a specific supernova model, and they only take into account the feedback of the neutrino background on the flavor conversion, they suggest a rich phenomenology in the supernova core as a function of the post-bounce time which needs to be further explored to assess its impact on the explosion mechanism.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

On the length scale of collective neutrino oscillations

In this paper, I present a discussion on the length scale of collective neutrino oscillations. There is a popular myth in the field that the length scale of collective neutrino oscillation is related to the strength of self-interaction potential; this is a result of confusion between the length scale and time scale. As a consequence of this myth, it is believed that the convergence of numerical simulation of quantum kinetic equations requires a spatial resolution (radial bin size) that is equal to the inverse of the self-interaction potential. I try to debunk this myth in this paper.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Energy Dependence of Flavor Instabilities Stemming from Crossings in the Neutrino Flavor Lepton Number Angular Distribution

In core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers, the neutrino density is so large that neutrino-neutrino refraction can lead to flavor conversion, if a zero-crossing is present in the neutrino flavor lepton number (FLN) angular distribution and the neutrino self-interaction strength $μ=\sqrt{2} G_F n_ν$ represents the characteristic timescale of the system. It has been empirically realized that the vacuum frequency $ω=Δm^2/2E$ affects the development of flavor conversion in the presence of zero-crossing even if $ω\ll μ$. Focusing on a homogeneous and axially symmetric neutrino gas, we explore the role of $ω$ in the onset of flavor instabilities. We find that a non-zero vacuum frequency can be responsible for inducing flavor instabilities even when the neutrino self-interaction strength is much larger than the vacuum frequency. Moreover, mapping a neutrino ensemble with $ω\neq 0$ into an effective system with $ω=0$, we find that a system with no FLN zero-crossing can effectively develop one for $ω\neq 0$ becoming unstable.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Do Neutrinos Become Flavor Unstable Due to Collisions with Matter in the Supernova Decoupling Region?

In core-collapse supernovae, the neutrino density is so large that neutrino flavor instabilities, leading to flavor conversion, can be triggered by the forward scattering of neutrinos among each other, if a crossing between the angular distributions of electron neutrinos and antineutrinos exists (fast instability in the limit of vanishing vacuum frequency) or in the presence of perturbations induced by the neutrino vacuum frequency (slow instability). Recently, it has been advanced the conjecture that neutrino collisions with the medium could be another mean to kickstart flavor change (collisional instability). Inspired by a spherically symmetric core-collapse supernova model with mass $18.6\ M_\odot$, we compute the neutrino angular distributions solving the kinetic equations for an average energy mode and investigate the occurrence of flavor instabilities at different post-bounce times, ranging from the accretion phase to the early cooling phase. We find that fast and slow flavor instabilities largely dominate over the collisional ones in the decoupling region for all post-bounce times. While more work is needed to assess the relevance of collisional instabilities in neutrino-dense environments, our findings suggest that neutrino collisions with matter affect the flavor evolution in the decoupling region, but are not responsible for triggering flavor conversion, if crossings in the neutrino lepton number angular distribution exist.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Symmetry breaking due to multi-angle matter-neutrino resonance in neutron star merger remnants

Neutron star merger remnants are unique sites for exploring neutrino flavor conversion in dense media. Because of the natural excess of $\barν_e$ over $ν_e$, the neutrino-neutrino potential can cancel the matter potential, giving rise to matter-neutrino resonant flavor conversion. Under the assumption of two (anti)neutrino flavors and spatial homogeneity, we solve the neutrino quantum kinetic equations to investigate the occurrence of the matter-neutrino resonance within a multi-angle framework. We find that isotropy is broken spontaneously, regardless of the mass ordering. Relying on a hydrodynamical simulation of a binary neutron star merger remnant with a black hole of $3\ M_\odot$ and an accretion torus of $0.3\ M_\odot$, we find that complete flavor conversion caused by the matter-neutrino resonance is unlikely, although the matter and neutrino potentials cancel at various locations above the disk. Importantly, the matter-neutrino resonant flavor conversion crucially depends on the shape of the neutrino angular distributions. Our findings suggest that an accurate modeling of the neutrino angular distributions is necessary to understand flavor conversion physics in merger remnants, its implications on the disk physics and synthesis of the elements heavier than iron.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Perturbing Fast Neutrino Flavor Conversion

The flavor evolution of neutrinos in dense astrophysical sources, such as core-collapse supernovae or compact binary mergers, is non-linear due to the coherent forward scattering of neutrinos among themselves. Recent work in this context has been addressed to figure out whether flavor equipartition could be a generic flavor outcome of fast flavor conversion. We investigate the flavor conversion physics injecting random perturbations in the neutrino field in two simulation setups: 1. a spherically symmetric simulation shell without periodic boundaries, with angular distributions evolving dynamically thanks to non-forward scatterings of neutrinos with the background medium, and neutrino advection; 2. a periodic simulation shell, with angular distributions of neutrinos defined a priori and neutrino advection. We find that, independent of the exact initial flavor configuration and type of perturbations, flavor equipartition is generally achieved in the system with periodic boundaries; in this case, perturbations aid the diffusion of flavor structures to smaller and smaller scales. However, flavor equipartition is not a general outcome in the simulation shell without periodic boundaries, where the inhomogeneities induced perturbing the neutrino field affect the flavor evolution, but do not facilitate the diffusion of flavor waves. This work highlights the importance of the choice of the simulation boundary conditions in the exploration of fast flavor conversion physics.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Neutrino Decoupling Is Altered by Flavor Conversion

The large neutrino density in the deep interior of core-collapse supernovae and compact binary merger remnants makes neutrino flavor evolution non-linear because of the coherent forward scattering of neutrinos among themselves. Under the assumption of spherical symmetry, we model neutrino decoupling from matter in an idealized setup and present the first non-linear simulation of flavor evolution in the presence of charged current and neutral current collisions, as well as neutrino advection. Within our framework, we find that flavor transformation occurs before neutrinos fully decouple from matter, dynamically affecting the flavor distributions of all neutrino species and shifting the location of the neutrino decoupling surfaces. Our results call for further work as they may have implications on the explosion mechanism of supernovae, the nucleosynthesis of the heavy elements, as well as the observable neutrino signal, all of which is yet to be assessed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Do we have enough evidence to invalidate the mean-field approximation adopted to model collective neutrino oscillations?

Recent body of work points out that the mean-field approximation, widely employed to mimic the neutrino field within a neutrino-dense source, might give different results in terms of flavor evolution with respect to the correspondent many-body treatment. In this paper, we investigate whether such conclusions derived within a constrained framework should hold in an astrophysical context. We show that the plane waves, commonly adopted in the many-body literature to model the neutrino field, provide results that are crucially different with respect to the ones obtained using wavepackets of finite size streaming with a non-zero velocity. The many-body approach intrinsically includes coherent and incoherent scatterings. The mean-field approximation, on the other hand, only takes into account the coherent scattering in the absence of the collision term. Even if incoherent scatterings are included in the mean-field approach, the nature of the collision term is different from that in the many-body approach. Because of this, if only a finite number of neutrinos is considered, as often assumed, the two approaches naturally lead to different flavor outcomes. These differences are further exacerbated by vacuum mixing. We conclude that existing many-body literature, based on closed neutrino systems with a finite number of particles, is neither able to rule out nor assess the validity of the mean-field approach adopted to simulate the evolution of the neutrino field in dense astrophysical sources, which are open systems.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Neutrino Flavor Conversion, Advection, and Collisions: Towards the Full Solution

At high densities in compact astrophysical sources, the coherent forward scattering of neutrinos onto each other is responsible for making the flavor evolution non-linear. Under the assumption of spherical symmetry, we present the first simulations tracking flavor transformation in the presence of neutrino-neutrino forward scattering, neutral and charged current collisions with the matter background, as well as neutrino advection. We find that, although flavor equipartition could be one of the solutions, it is not a generic outcome, as often postulated in the literature. Intriguingly, the strong interplay between flavor conversion, collisions, and advection leads to a spread of flavor conversion across the neutrino angular distributions and neighboring spatial regions. Our simulations show that slow and fast flavor transformation can occur simultaneously. In the light of this, looking for crossings in the electron neutrino lepton number as a diagnostic tool of the occurrence of flavor transformation in the high-density regime is a limiting method.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Enhancement or damping of fast neutrino flavor conversions due to collisions

Fast neutrino flavor conversion can occur in core-collapse supernovae or compact binary merger remnants when non-forward collisions are also at play, and neutrinos are not fully decoupled from matter. This work aims to shed light on the conditions under which fast flavor conversion is enhanced or suppressed by collisions. By relying on a neutrino toy model with three angular bins in the absence of spatial inhomogeneities, we consider two angular configurations: The first one with angular distributions of $ν_e$ and $\barν_e$ that are almost isotropic as expected before complete neutrino decoupling and showing little flavor conversion when collisions are absent. The second one with angular distributions of $ν_e$ and $\barν_e$ that are forward peaked as expected in the free-streaming regime and showing significant flavor conversion in the absence of collisions. By including angle-independent, direction-changing collisions, we find that collisions are responsible for an overall enhancement (damping) of flavor conversion in the former (latter) angular configuration. These opposite outcomes are due to the non-trivial interplay between collisions, flavor conversion, and the initial angular distributions of the electron type neutrinos. The enhancement in neutrino flavor conversion is found to be anticorrelated with the magnitude of flavor conversions in the absence of collisions.

astro-ph.HE↗