Special Colloquium, February 24, 2004

Neutrinos on the Rocks

Gail McLaughlin

North Carolina State University

Neutrinos are our window deep into the center of a supernova, so their detection is much anticipated. A few neutrinos from a supernova were seen in 1987, and if a galactic supernova exploded today, we would detect thousands of events. But what will they tell us? Recent experimental results show that neutrinos from the atmosphere, the sun and from nuclear reactors oscillate, so they must transform in the supernovae too. We need to be able to disentangle the oscillation physics from what neutrinos can tell us about supernova physics. I will give a theoretical discussion of the ways in which neutrinos may oscillate in the supernova in light of the new data, and apply the results to a neutrino detection scenario, such as the one being studied at Ohio State, OMNIS.

1:00 p.m., Smith Laboratory, Room 1094

Refreshments served in Smith 1094 at 12:30 p.m.