http://arxiv.org/abs/2106.14199
For the next generation of neutrino telescopes at the South Pole new optical sensors with a segmented photosensitive area are being developed. These sensors will significantly increase the detectors’ sensitivity not only to high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, but also to neutrinos in the MeV energy range, such as those produced in supernovae during core collapse. These low-energy neutrinos can provide a detailed picture of the events that follow the collapse of the stellar core, thus verifying and improving our understanding of these massive explosions. The new sensor design has the potential to enable event-based detection of MeV neutrinos with a single sensor while effectively suppressing background. This paper presents the results of studies on the sensitivity of such a segmented sensor to MeV neutrinos and, for the first time, the potential of a corresponding detector in the deep ice at the South Pole for the detection of extra-galactic core-collapse supernovae (CCSN). We find that using coincidence conditions between the photocathode segments within a sensor we can detect a CCSN with a progenitor mass of $27\ \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ up to a distance of $370\,\mathrm{kpc}$ with a false detection rate of $0.4$ per year. If the arrival burst time is known from an independent observation with $\delta t = 1\,\mathrm{h}$, such CCSN can be detected with a probability of $50\%$ at [407, 341]$\,$kpc distance with a certainty of [3.2, 4.9]$\,\sigma$ that the signal was not produced by background fluctuations.
C. Mariscal, L. Classen, M. Elorrieta, et. al.
Tue, 29 Jun 21
51/101
Comments: Paper is to be submitted to European Physical Journal C. 11 pages, 10 figures