Evolution of Tau-Neutrino Lepton Number in Protoneutron Stars due to Active-Sterile Neutrino Mixing

Abstract

We present an approximate treatment of the mixing between $\nu_{\tau}$ ($\bar\nu_{\tau}$) and a sterile species $\nu_s$ ($\bar\nu_s$) with a vacuum mass-squared difference of $\sim$ 10$^2$-10$^3$ keV$^2$ in protoneutron stars created in core-collapse supernovae. Including production of sterile neutrinos through both resonant flavor conversion and collisions, we track the evolution of the $\nu_{\tau}$ lepton number due to both escape of sterile neutrinos and diffusion. Our approach provides a reasonable treatment of the pertinent processes discussed in previous studies and serves a pedagogical purpose to elucidate the relevant physics. We also discuss refinements needed to study more accurately how flavor mixing with sterile neutrinos affects protoneutron star evolution.