Supernova Neutrino Process of Li and B Revisited

Abstract

We reinvestigate effects of neutrino oscillations on the production of 7Li and 11B 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 12C and 4He are affected. In this work corrected neutrino spallation cross sections for 4He and 12C 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 effects of the progenitor metallicity are included. A dependence of the SN nucleosynthesis and final yields of 7Li and 11B on the neutrino mass hierarchy are shown in several stellar locations. In the normal hierarchy case, the charged current reaction rates of electron neutrinos are enhanced, and yields of proton-rich nuclei, along with 7Be and 11C, are increased. In the inverted hierarchy case, the charged current reaction rates of electron antineutrinos are enhanced, and yields of neutron-rich nuclei, along with 7Li and 11B, are increased. We find that variation of the metallicity modifies the yields of 7Li, 7Be, 11B, and 11C. 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.