The influence of inelastic neutrino interactions with light clusters on core-collapse supernova simulations

Abstract

We perform numerical experiments to investigate the influence of inelastic neutrino reactions with light clusters in hot nuclear matter on core-collapse supernova simulations. These interactions have been neglected in most hydrodynamical supernova simulations. The neutrino absorptions and inelastic interactions with deuterons, tritons, helions and alpha particles are taken into account in the hydrodynamical simulations in addition to the ordinary charged- current interactions with nucleons. Axial symmetry is assumed but no equatorial symmetry is imposed. The time evolutions of shock waves are calculated with a simple light-bulb approximation for the neutrino transport and a multi-nuclei equation of state. We show that the heating rates of deuterons reach as high as ~ 10% of those of nucleons around the bottom of the gain region. On the other hand, alpha particles heat the matter near the shock wave, which is important when the shock wave expands and density and temperature of matter become low. It is also found that the models with heating by light clusters have different evolutions from those without it in non-linear evolution phase. The matter in the gain region has various densities and temperatures and there appear regions that are locally rich in deuterons and alpha particles. These results indicate that the inelastic reactions of light clusters, especially deuterons, should be incorporated in the simulations of core-collapse supernovae.