Resonant neutrino spin-flavor precession and supernova shock revival

A new mechanism of supernova shock revival is proposed which involves the resonant spin-flavor precession of neutrinos with a transition magnetic moment in the magnetic field of the supernova. The mechanism can be operative in supernovae for transition magnetic moments as small as ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}14}{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{B}$ provided the neutrino mass squared difference is in the range $\ensuremath{\Delta}{m}^{2}\ensuremath{\sim}(3 \mathrm{eV}{)}^{2}\ensuremath{-}(600\mathrm{eV}{)}^{2}$. It is shown that this mechanism can increase the neutrino-induced shock reheating energy by about 60%.