Paper detail

Nuclear pasta and supernova neutrinos at late times

Nuclear pasta, with nucleons arranged into tubes, sheets, or other complex shapes, is expected in core collapse supernovae (SNe) at just below nuclear density. We calculate the additional opacity from neutrino-pasta coherent scattering using molecular dynamics simulations. We approximately include this opacity in simulations of SNe. We find that pasta slows neutrino diffusion and greatly increases the neutrino signal at late times of 10 or more seconds after stellar core collapse. This signal, for a galactic SN, should be clearly visible in large detectors such as Super-Kamiokande.