Future Detection of Supernova Neutrino Burst and Explosion Mechanism
Abstract
Future detection of a supernova neutrino burst by large underground detectors would give important information for the explosion mechanism of collapse-driven supernovae. We studied the statistical analysis for the future detection of a nearby supernova by using a numerical supernova model and realistic Monte Carlo simulations of detection by the Super-Kamiokande detector. We mainly discuss the detectability of the signatures of the delayed explosion mechanism in the time evolution of the νe luminosity and spectrum. For a supernova at 10 kpc away from the Earth, we find not only that the signature is clearly discernible but also that the deviation of the energy spectrum from the Fermi-Dirac (FD) distribution can be observed. The deviation from the FD distribution would, if observed, provide a test for the standard picture of neutrino emission from collapse-driven supernovae. For the D = 50 kpc case, the signature of the delayed explosion is still observable, but statistical fluctuation is too large to detect the deviation from the FD distribution. We also propose a method for statistical reconstruction of the time evolution of νe luminosity and spectrum from data, by which we can get a smoother time evolution and smaller statistical errors than by a simple, time-binning analysis. This method is useful especially when the available number of events is relatively small, e.g., a supernova in the LMC or SMC. A neutronization burst of νe's produces about five scattering events when D = 10 kpc, and this signal is difficult to distinguish from νep events.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- March 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1086/305364
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9710203
- Bibcode:
- 1998ApJ...496..216T
- Keywords:
-
- ELEMENTARY PARTICLES;
- GALAXIES: ISM;
- GALAXIES: MAGELLANIC CLOUDS;
- STARS: SUPERNOVAE: GENERAL;
- Elementary Particles;
- Galaxies: ISM;
- Galaxies: Magellanic Clouds;
- Stars: Supernovae: General;
- Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 28 pages including all figures. Accepted by Astrophys. J