Neutral currents, supernovae neutrinos, and nucleosynthesis

The inelastic interactions of neutrinos during stellar collapse and neutron star cooling are discussed. The primary mechanism for dissipative neutrino reactions is nuclear excitation by neutral current scattering, a process not included in standard descriptions of supernovae. Charge-current and neutral current ''preheating'' of iron lying outside the shock front appears to be significant in the few milliseconds near shock breakout. This could help produce a more energetic shock. During the cooling phase, the neutral current interactions of muon and taon neutrinos appear to be responsible for some interesting nucleosynthesis. I discuss two examples the production of fluorine and neutrino-induced r-process nucleosynthesis. 26 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs