Reconstructing the supernova bounce time with neutrinos in IceCube

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that IceCube can accurately reconstruct the bounce time of a supernova within a few milliseconds using neutrino signals, which is crucial for multi-messenger astronomy involving gravitational waves.

Contribution

It extends previous studies by quantifying IceCube's timing precision for supernova neutrinos and analyzing the impact of neutrino oscillations on timing accuracy.

Findings

IceCube can reconstruct supernova bounce time within ±3.5 ms at 10 kpc.

Timing uncertainty increases with the square of the distance.

Neutrino flavor oscillations can cause a few millisecond offset in bounce time reconstruction.

Abstract

Generic model predictions for the early neutrino signal of a core-collapse supernova (SN) imply that IceCube can reconstruct the bounce to within about +/- 3.5 ms at 95% CL (assumed SN distance 10 kpc), relevant for coincidence with gravitational-wave detectors. The timing uncertainty scales approximately with distance-squared. The offset between true and reconstructed bounce time of up to several ms depends on the neutrino flavor oscillation scenario. Our work extends the recent study of Pagliaroli et al. [PRL 103, 031102 (2009)] and demonstrates IceCube's superb timing capabilities for neutrinos from the next nearby SN.