What happens when neutrinos swap identities inside a supernova?

Identity-fluid particles may carry some energy out, leading to direct collapse.

The short version

• Our basic understanding of core-collapse supernovae hasn’t changed in decades.
• Large stars burn through all the fuel at their cores and start creating heavier elements in reactions that consume energy.
• The lack of energy from these reactions allows gravity to pull the interior of the star in on itself, collapsing it into a neutron star or black hole.

What happened

The energy released by this process then blows the remainder of the star apart. But there’s an entire busload of devils in the details.

Why it matters

The statistics of supernovae that we’ve observed indicate that the model may be seriously incomplete.

Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.