Prompt directional detection of galactic supernova by combining large liquid scintillator neutrino detectors

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to quickly determine the direction of a galactic supernova using liquid scintillator neutrino detectors, improving localization accuracy and enhancing early warning systems.

Contribution

It introduces a new procedure for prompt supernova localization by analyzing IBD kinematics across multiple detectors, achieving competitive accuracy with water Cerenkov detectors.

Findings

Supernova can be localized within 45 degrees at 10 kpc with current detectors.

Next-generation detectors could improve localization to 12 degrees.

Method enables potential constraints on neutrino spectrum and neutron star mass.

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae produce an intense burst of electron antineutrinos in the few-tens-of-MeV range. Several Large Liquid Scintillator-based Detectors (LLSD) are currently operated worldwide, being very effective for low energy antineutrino detection through the Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) process. In this article, we develop a procedure for the prompt extraction of the supernova location by revisiting the details of IBD kinematics over the broad energy range of supernova neutrinos. Combining all current scintillator-based detector, we show that one can locate a canonical supernova at 10 kpc with an accuracy of 45 degrees (68% C.L.). After the addition of the next generation of scintillator-based detectors, the accuracy could reach 12 degrees (68% C.L.), therefore reaching the performances of the large water Cerenkov neutrino detectors. We also discuss a possible improvement of the SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS) inter-experiment network with the implementation of a directionality information in each experiment. Finally, we discuss the possibility to constrain the neutrino energy spectrum as well as the mass of the newly born neutron star with the LLSD data