Supernova Search with the AMANDA / IceCube Detectors

TL;DR

This paper discusses the capabilities of the AMANDA and IceCube neutrino detectors in monitoring the galaxy for supernova neutrino bursts, highlighting their detection methods, system integration, and potential scientific insights.

Contribution

It introduces the extension of supernova neutrino burst searches from AMANDA to IceCube, detailing the detection approach and potential for precise neutrino burst measurements.

Findings

IceCube can detect neutrino bursts from nearby supernovae.

IceCube provides the most precise measurement of neutrino burst time profiles.

Potential to study neutrino properties like theta13 and hierarchy.

Abstract

Since 1997 the neutrino telescope AMANDA at the geographic South Pole has been monitoring our Galaxy for neutrino bursts from supernovae. Triggers were introduced in 2004 to submit burst candidates to the Supernova Early Warning System SNEWS. From 2007 the burst search was extended to the much larger IceCube telescope, which now supersedes AMANDA. By exploiting the low photomultiplier noise in the antarctic ice (on average 280Hz for IceCube), neutrino bursts from nearby supernovae can be identified by the induced collective rise in the pulse rates. Although only a counting experiment, IceCube will provide the world's most precise measurement of the time profile of a neutrino burst near the galactic center. The sensitivity to neutrino properties such as the theta13 mixing angle and the neutrino hierarchy are discussed as well as the possibility to detect the deleptonization burst.