Supernova neutrinos

Owned by Ciaran
Last updated: Sept 19, 2022
2 min read

Supernovae generate a lot of neutrinos, which can be detected in NaI detectors via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS).

Using two simplified SN simulations (an 11 solar mass one and a 27 solar mass one) we can compute the CEvNS rates to estimate how close a galactic supernova would have to be to detect it. I estimate that it would probably have to be around 2 kpc or closer for a threshold of 1 keVee and 50 kg detector. (Event rate scales as 1/distance^2)

 

Event rate spectra (assuming Q = 0.1)

 

Number of events as a function of the distance to the supernova with a few benchmarks. This assumes all events above 1 keVee are detectable and a quenching factor of 0.1. Can’t quite get out to the typical supernova distance of 10 kpc, but 2 kpc is not bad. All the events would be in a ~10 second burst so backgrounds are negligible.

To do:

  • Write up results in overleaf

  • Write something about what would have to be done if this happened. If the detector is data-taking then no problem, but if it wasn’t then would have to rely on supernova alert from a big nu detector, and then get up and running (probably on the timescale of a few hours depending on the SN distance)