- Accepted Paper
Neutrino flavor conversion shapes the rate of failed core-collapse supernovae
Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 5 August, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pz3y-3lv5
Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 5 August, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pz3y-3lv5
The relative rate of neutron stars and black holes produced by the collapse of massive stars is highly uncertain. We simulate the stellar collapse of progenitors with masses between and , incorporating a schematic treatment of neutrino flavor conversion. We find that flavor transformation reshapes the explodability of massive stars—especially in the – mass range—and modifies the compact remnant mass distribution. Our findings identify neutrino flavor conversion as a fundamental ingredient in predicting neutron star and black hole populations, while naturally easing the red-supergiant and the supernova-rate problems, as well as reconciling theoretical expectations with the low-mass tail of the observed neutron star mass distribution.
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