Kavli Affiliate: Pau Amaro Seoane
| Summary:
The coalescence of degenerate helium cores during red giant collisions – a process we term erythrohenosis – introduces a novel class of transient astrophysical sources of high-energy neutrinos. Using stellar models generated with MESA and SPH simulations of the final inspiral phase, we develop a semi-analytical model to estimate the amount of hydrogen mixed into the cores, the energy release ($approx 4.28 times 10^49$ erg) that heats the remnant to $T_f approx 5.3 times 10^8$ K, the magnetic field amplification ($B approx 1.77 times 10^10$ G), and the resulting neutrino flux. We find that the predicted TeV–PeV neutrino signal can account for the diffuse neutrino flux observed by IceCube and demonstrate that a single merger event within $sim 2$ Mpc would be detectable in this energy regime. Furthermore, we discuss the probability of a magnetized helium flash and assess the subsequent activation of the CNO cycle in the remnant core due to hydrogen mixing. In particular, neutrinos from the decay of $^18$F offer a direct observational test of the detonation. The simultaneous emission of high-energy hadronic neutrinos, gravitational waves, and — if the optical depth permits — an electromagnetic signal would constitute a unique multimessenger signature of red giant core collisions, positioning erythrohenosis events as exotic yet potentially observable phenomena in dense stellar systems.
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