The effect of collective flavor oscillations on the diffuse supernova neutrino background

Abstract

Collective flavor oscillations driven by neutrino–neutrino interactions inside core-collapsesupernovae have now been shown to drastically alter the resultant neutrino fluxes. Thiswould in turn significantly affect the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB),created by all core-collapse supernovae that have exploded in the past. In view of thesecollective effects, we re-analyze the potential for detecting the DSNB in currently runningand planned large scale detectors meant for detecting both and νe. We find that the event rate can be different from previous estimates by up to50%, depending onthe value of θ13. The next generation detectors should be able to observe DSNB fluxes. Under certainconducive conditions, one could learn about neutrino parameters. For instance, it might bepossible to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, even if .