Neutrinos from SN 1987A - Implications for cooling of the nascent neutron star and the mass of the electron antineutrino
Abstract
Data on neutrinos from SN 1987A are compared here with parameterized models of the neutrino emission using a consistent and straightforward statistical methodology. The empirically measured detector background spectra are included in the analysis, and the data are compared with a much wider variety of neutrino emission models than was explored previously. It is shown that the inferred neutrino emission model parameters are strongly correlated. The analysis confirms that simple models of the neutrino cooling of the nascent neutron star formed by the SN adequately explain the data. The inferred radius and binding energy of the neutron star are in excellent agreement with model calculations based on a wide range of equations of state. The results also raise the upper limit of the electron antineutrino rest mass to roughly 25 eV at the 95 percent confidence level, roughly 1.5-5 times higher than found previously.
- Publication:
-
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Pub Date:
- December 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1989.tb50547.x
- Bibcode:
- 1989NYASA.571..601L
- Keywords:
-
- Neutrinos;
- Neutron Stars;
- Stellar Models;
- Stellar Radiation;
- Supernova 1987a;
- Antineutrinos;
- Maximum Likelihood Estimates;
- Radiation Detectors;
- Statistical Analysis;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Astrophysics