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Recoil-Enabled Energy Transfer from Coherent Neutrino Scattering in Core-Collapse Supernovae

Tatsushi Shima

TL;DR

This work demonstrates that restoring nuclear recoil in coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEvNS) reveals a non-negligible, accumulate-able energy transfer in the post-shock region of core-collapse supernovae. By separating the microscopic energy-transfer kernel from the heating rate, the authors show that CEvNS can supply energy of order the historically inferred deficit, with a total heating of roughly $(2-3)\times10^{49}$ erg across the ~100 km semi-transparent layer, potentially enabling shock revival. Importantly, per-event momentum transfer remains small, so emergent neutrino spectra and lepton-number balance are largely unchanged, preserving consistency with existing transport frameworks. This minimal recoil correction offers a self-consistent path toward more reliable explosion modeling, with further work to incorporate a full dynamic structure factor and realistic isotopic compositions for quantitative impact on explosions.

Abstract

We revisit neutrino-matter coupling in the post-shock region of core-collapse supernovae by restoring nuclear recoil in coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS). The resulting local energy transfer (a few keV per ~10 MeV neutrino) accumulates across the ~100 km stalled-shock layer, yielding a total heating of 10^49-10^50 erg, comparable within an order of magnitude to the increment required to trigger shock revival in current multidimensional simulations. This indicates that the long-standing failure of isoenergetic transport schemes to revive the shock originates from their neglect of recoil kinematics. Because the momentum exchange in each scattering is tiny, the emergent neutrino spectra and lepton-number balance remain essentially unchanged. The result highlights nuclear recoil as a minimal yet physically grounded correction to standard neutrino transport, providing a self-consistent route toward reliable explosion modeling.

Recoil-Enabled Energy Transfer from Coherent Neutrino Scattering in Core-Collapse Supernovae

TL;DR

This work demonstrates that restoring nuclear recoil in coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEvNS) reveals a non-negligible, accumulate-able energy transfer in the post-shock region of core-collapse supernovae. By separating the microscopic energy-transfer kernel from the heating rate, the authors show that CEvNS can supply energy of order the historically inferred deficit, with a total heating of roughly erg across the ~100 km semi-transparent layer, potentially enabling shock revival. Importantly, per-event momentum transfer remains small, so emergent neutrino spectra and lepton-number balance are largely unchanged, preserving consistency with existing transport frameworks. This minimal recoil correction offers a self-consistent path toward more reliable explosion modeling, with further work to incorporate a full dynamic structure factor and realistic isotopic compositions for quantitative impact on explosions.

Abstract

We revisit neutrino-matter coupling in the post-shock region of core-collapse supernovae by restoring nuclear recoil in coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS). The resulting local energy transfer (a few keV per ~10 MeV neutrino) accumulates across the ~100 km stalled-shock layer, yielding a total heating of 10^49-10^50 erg, comparable within an order of magnitude to the increment required to trigger shock revival in current multidimensional simulations. This indicates that the long-standing failure of isoenergetic transport schemes to revive the shock originates from their neglect of recoil kinematics. Because the momentum exchange in each scattering is tiny, the emergent neutrino spectra and lepton-number balance remain essentially unchanged. The result highlights nuclear recoil as a minimal yet physically grounded correction to standard neutrino transport, providing a self-consistent route toward reliable explosion modeling.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 8 sections, 13 equations, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Energy-transfer kernel
  3. Definition of the Linear Energy Transfer (LET)
  4. Effective Differential Cross Section for incoherent nuclei
  5. Effective Differential Cross Section for incoherent nucleons
  6. Effective Differential Cross Section for coherent nuclei
  7. Energetic impact of coherent scattering
  8. Summary

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Angular energy-transfer distribution $I(\theta)$ for inter-nuclear coherence ($\xi=5$ (dark blue), 10 (orange), 20 (green)), the incoherent limit (CE$\nu$NS, $\xi=1$, dashed red), and incoherent proton scattering (dashed-dotted gray). The nuclear form factor $|F(q)|^2$ is shown by the purple curve. $E_\nu=10$ MeV and $A=40$ are used as representative parameters.
  • Figure 2: Linear energy transfer (LET) as a function of neutrino energy. Dark blue: baseline ($\xi=10$, $A=40$, $\rho=1\times10^{10}$ g cm$^{-3}$); orange: heavy-nucleus rich ($\xi=10$, $A=80$); green: higher-density case ($\xi=10$, $A=80$, $\rho=3\times10^{10}$ g cm$^{-3}$); dashed red: single-nucleus CE$\nu$NS ($\xi=1$, $A=40$); and dashed-dotted gray: incoherent proton scattering. The CE$\nu$NS contribution reaches the magnitude needed for shock revival.