Supernova Neutrino Detection with IceCube

TL;DR

IceCube can detect supernova neutrinos by monitoring collective photomultiplier rate increases, providing valuable early warning and insights into neutrino properties and supernova dynamics, with sensitivity reaching the galactic edge.

Contribution

This paper demonstrates IceCube's capability to detect MeV neutrinos from supernovae and discusses its potential for studying neutrino properties and supernova phenomena.

Findings

IceCube detects supernova neutrinos via collective rate increases.

Sensitivity matches megaton-scale detectors for galactic supernovae.

Potential to study neutrino hierarchy and supernova signatures.

Abstract

IceCube was completed in December 2010. It forms a lattice of 5160 photomultiplier tubes that monitor a volume of ~ 1 cubic km in the deep Antarctic ice for particle induced photons. The telescope was designed to detect neutrinos with energies greater than 100 GeV. Owing to subfreezing ice temperatures, the photomultiplier dark noise rates are particularly low. Hence IceCube can also detect large numbers of MeV neutrinos by observing a collective rise in all photomultiplier rates on top of the dark noise. With 2 ms timing resolution, IceCube can track subtle features in the temporal development of the supernova neutrino burst. For a supernova at the galactic center, its sensitivity matches that of a background-free megaton-scale supernova search experiment. The sensitivity decreases to 20 standard deviations at the galactic edge (30 kpc) and 6 standard deviations at the Large Magellanic Cloud (50 kpc). IceCube is sending triggers from potential supernovae to the Supernova Early Warning System. The sensitivity to neutrino properties such as the neutrino hierarchy is discussed and simulations of tantalizing signatures, such as the formation of a quark star or a black hole as well as the characteristics of shock waves are presented. All results are preliminary.