Collisional flavor instabilities of supernova neutrinos

Abstract

A lingering mystery in core-collapse supernova theory is how collective neutrino oscillations affect the dynamics. All previously identified flavor instabilities, some of which might make the effects considerable, are essentially collisionless phenomena. Here it is shown that collisional instabilities exist as well. They are associated with asymmetries between the neutrino and antineutrino interaction rates, are possibly prevalent deep inside supernovae, and pose an unusual instance of decoherent interactions with a thermal environment causing the sustained growth of quantum coherence.