What Can We Learn By Observing Supernova Neutrinos?

Physics – Nuclear Physics

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

A core-collapse supernova emits of the order of 10^58 neutrinos of all flavors over about 10 seconds, with an average energy of about 11 MeV for ν_e, 16 MeV for barν_e, and 25 MeV for ν_μ, ν_τ, barν_μ, and barν_τ. The present and near-term solar neutrino detectors can readily observe a supernova anywhere in our Galaxy. The expected supernova rate in our Galaxy is about 3 per century. What can we learn by observing the neutrinos from the next Galactic supernova? Besides the nuclear and astrophysical aspects of the collapse mechanism, there will be an unprecedented opportunity to measure neutrino properties, in particular their masses. The ν_μ and ν_τ masses can be measured by time-of-flight relative to the νe and barνe neutrinos, with a nearly model-independent sensitivity down to about 30 eV. If the time development of the supernova neutrino luminosities were better known from theory, this could be reduced to 10 eV or less. In either case, it will be essential to map out the neutrino energy spectra by measuring the signals on several different nuclear targets. Direct information on the absolute scale of the neutrino masses is especially crucial now since the apparently positive signals from neutrino oscillation experiments indicate nonzero differences in neutrino masses, with no information on the overall scale.

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