Time Delay Between Gravitational Waves and Neutrino Burst From a Supernova Explosion: a Test for the Neutrino Mass

Abstract

During Supernova explosions two signals, Gravitational burst wave and Neutrino Burst, of different nature, originated within 0.1 s from thesuper nova explosion will be radiated in the outer space. If the neutrinos (as well as the gravitons) are massless particles, than the original interval (if any) between the two signals will be freezed forever. On the contrary, if the neutrinos have a tiny mass, the time delay will increase during the propagation because of the slower velocity of the neutrinos with respect to the massless gravitons. Therefore, two signals, of different nature, originated within 0.1 s from the super nova explosion will be radiated in the outer space. If the neutrinos (as well as the gravitons) are massless particles, than the original interval (if any) between the two signals will be freezed forever. If the neutrino has a mass the time delay will increase during the propagation because of the slower velocity of the neutrinos with respect to the massless gravitons: the time delay detection may measure the neutrino mass or its absence may inferr a severe neutrino mass bound.