Supernova Neutrino Process of Li and B Revisited

Abstract

We reinvestigate effects of neutrino oscillations on the production of 7 Li and 11 B in core-collapse supernovae (SNe). During the propagation of neutrinos from the proto–neutron star, their flavors change, and the neutrino reaction rates for spallation of 12 C and 4 He are affected. In this work, corrected neutrino spallation cross sections for 4 He and 12 C are adopted. Initial abundances involving heavy s -nuclei and other physical conditions are derived in a new calculation of the SN 1987A progenitor in which the effects of the progenitor metallicity are included. A dependence of the SN nucleosynthesis and final yields of 7 Li and 11 B on the neutrino mass hierarchy are shown in several stellar locations. In the normal hierarchy case, the charged-current (CC) reaction rates of are enhanced, and yields of proton-rich nuclei, along with 7 Be and 11 C, are increased. In the inverted hierarchy case, the CC reaction rates of are enhanced, and yields of neutron-rich nuclei, along with 7 Li and 11 B, are increased. We find that variation of the metallicity modifies the yields of 7 Li, 7 Be, 11 B, and 11 C. This effect is caused by changes in the neutron abundance during SN nucleosynthesis. Therefore, accurate calculations of Li and B production in SNe should take into account the metallicity of progenitor stars.