Testing the principle of equivalence by supernova neutrinos

Abstract

We study the possible impact of the neutrino oscillation which could be induced by a tiny violation of equivalence principle (VEP) for neutrinos emitted from supernova driven by gravitational collapse. Due to the absence of any significant indication of neutrino oscillation in the SN1987A data, we obtain sever bounds on relevant VEP parameters \delta \gamma\lsim O(10^{-31}) for massless or degenerated neutrinos and \delta \gamma \lsim O(10^{-16})\times [\Delta m^2/10^{-5} eV^2] for massive neutrinos.