New study unlocks how and why stars die Wed, Dec 23 2020 09:13:48 AM Chicago, Dec 23 (IANS): Researchers from the Northwestern University (NU) has found that by studying all three "flavors" involved in a supernova, they have unlocked more clues as to how and why stars die. Contrary to the past practice of simplifying studies by studying one flavor while ignoring the other two, the researchers in the new study created a non-linear simulation of a "fast conversion" when three neutrino flavors are present, where a fast conversion is marked by neutrinos interacting and changing flavors. They removed the assumption that the three flavors of neutrinos, muon, electron and tau neutrinos, have the same angular distribution, giving them each a different distribution.