Active and Sterile Neutrino Emission and SN1987A Pulsar Velocity

Abstract

Recently estimates have been made of the velocities of pulsars produced by the emission of sterile neutrinos during the first 10 seconds and by active neutrinos during the second 10 seconds after a supernova event reaches thermal equilibrium. Neutrinos produced with electrons in the lowest Landau level are emitted in the direction of the magnetic field, and the resulting pulsar velocity depends mainly on the temperature. Using measurements of the neutrino energies emitted from SN1987A, the temperature can be estimated, and from this we estimate the velocity of the resulting pulsar from both active and large mixing-angle sterile neutrinos.