Supernova neutrinos, giant resonances, and nucleosynthesis

Almost all of the 3·1053 ergs liberated in a core collapse supernova is radiated as neutrinos by the cooling neutron star. The neutrinos can excite nuclei in the mantle of the star by their neutral and charged current reactions. I argue that the resulting spallation reactions are an important nucleosynthesis mechanism that may be responsible for the galactic abundances of 7Li, 11B, 19F, 138La, 180Ta, and approximately a dozen other light nuclei. 18 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab