Anomalous energy and momentum transfer of intense neutrinos in supernova explosions

A novel mechanism, by which the intense flux of neutrinos in a supernova explosion can effectively transfer energy and momentum into the stellar matter outside the neutrinosphere, is proposed. The energy and momentum rate can be greater by orders of magnitude than that conventionally accepted. Roughly, the new rate scales with the first power of the Fermi constant G F , instead of the second power resulting from collision between individual neutrinos and fermions. Through scattering of neutrinos and sound waves, it increases the scattering cross section by a factor G F -1 , which may shed new light on the problem of the stalled supernova explosion