Impact of Sterile Neutrinos on Core-Collapse Supernovae

Despite significant advancements in modeling core-collapse supernovae, there are still phenomena that we do not understand. The existence of a heavy right-handed sterile neutrino may provide a means of solving some of the issues related to the lepton fraction, neutrino spectrum and energy transport within the collapsing core. Recent anomalous reactor results and cosmological constraints provide some bounds on the sterile neutrino mass $m_{s}$ and mixing angle $\sin^{2} 2 \theta_{s}$. We have included the effects of a coherent active-sterile conversion for a $\sim$keV mass sterile neutrino, including matter effects through the MSW mechanism, into a self-consistent supernova model. Preliminary results show that a few milliseconds prior to the core bounce there is a coherent conversion of electron neutrinos to sterile neutrinos, which alters the neutrino spectrum and dynamics of the collapse.