Nuclear structure and neutrino-nucleus reactions at supernova energies

Supernova-(anti-)neutrino–nucleus scattering is discussed with reference to neutral-current (NC) and charged-current (CC) processes in heavy stable nuclei. The Donnelly-Walecka method with the associated multipole expansion of the nucleonic current has been adopted as the basic framework in deriving the neutrino-nucleus scattering cross sections. The needed nuclear wave functions are computed by using the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA) for the even-even target nuclei in the NC processes and the proton-neutron QRPA (pnQRPA) has been used to compute the CC processes for the mentioned nuclei. The wave functions of the stable odd-mass target nuclei have been obtained by the use…