Topics in Neutrino Astrophysics

Abstract

These lectures cover three topics in neutrino astrophysics. The solar neutrino problem is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the microphysics of the standard solar model, detector responses, the quantum mechanics of the MSW mechanism, and the possibility of spin-flavor oscillations. In the second lecture the electromagnetic properties of Dirac and Majorana neutrinos are discussed. Two classic problems in red giant evolution - the triple alpha reaction and the delay of the He flash by anomalous cooling - are used to illustrate how stellar cooling arguments constrain neutrino properties. Axion and Dirac neutrino mass effects on supernova cooling are also discussed. The third lecture describes the supernova explosion mechanism and the associated nucleosynthesis. The neutrino process and r-process are discussed, including the "neutrino fingerprint" on the latter that supports earlier suggestions that the r-process site is near the mass cut of a type II supernova. The effects of tau neutrino oscillations on the r-process are described briefly. The material is presented at a level suitable for graduate students at the beginning of their research careers.