Resonance production of keV sterile neutrinos in core-collapse
  supernovae and lepton number diffusion
  We investigate how hypothetical particles - sterile neutrinos - can be
produced in the interior of exploding supernovae via the resonant conversion of
$\bar\nu_\mu$ and $\bar \nu_\tau$. The novelty of our treatment lies in the
proper account of the resulting lepton number diffusion. We compute the yield
of sterile neutrinos and find that even after taking into account back
reaction, sterile neutrinos can carry out a sizeable fraction of the total
energy of the explosion comparable to that of active neutrinos. The production
is, however, exponentially sensitive to the temperature in the inner supernovae
regions, making robust predictions of challenging. In order to understand
whether this production affects supernova evolution and can therefore be
constrained, detailed simulations including the effects of sterile neutrinos
are needed.
