Published September 1988 | Version v1
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Lower bound on e+e- decay of massive neutrinos

Description

Astronomical observations of SN1987A, such as the light curve, spectral intensities of lines, the X-ray emissions, etc., constrain the lifetime for the decay of a heavy neutrino 1 MeV less than or equivalent to m sub nu H less than or equal to 50 MeV through nu sub H yields nu sub 1+e(+)+e(-) exceeds 4 x 10 to the 15th exp(-m sub nuH/5MeV) seconds. Otherwise. resulting ionization energy deposits and stronger X-ray emission would have been observed. This coupled with traditional cosmological considerations argues that the lifetime of tau-neutrinos probably exceeds the age of the universe. This in turn would imply the standard cosmological mass bound does apply to nu sub tau, namely m sub nu sub tau less than or equivalent to 100 h squared eV (where h is the Hubble constant in units of 100 km/sec/mpc). The only significant loophole for these latter arguments would be if nu sub tau primarily decays rapidly into particles having very weak interactions

Availability note (English)

MF available from INIS under the Report Number; Available from NTIS, PC A02/MF A01.

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Additional details

Publishing Information

Imprint Pagination
7 p.
Report number
N--89-16458

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
United States
INIS RN
20058598
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Resource subtype / Literary indicator
Numerical Data
Descriptors DEI
COSMOLOGY; DECAY; ELECTRON PAIRS; HUBBLE EFFECT; NEUTRINOS; PAIR PRODUCTION; PARTICLE INTERACTIONS; SUPERNOVAE; TAU NEUTRINOS; THEORETICAL DATA
Descriptors DEC
BINARY STARS; DATA; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS; FERMIONS; HEAVY LEPTONS; INFORMATION; INTERACTIONS; LEPTONS; MASSLESS PARTICLES; NUMERICAL DATA; PARTICLE PRODUCTION; STARS; VARIABLE STARS

Optional Information