Neutrinos from the cosmic noon: a probe of the cosmic star formation history

TL;DR

This paper investigates how future neutrino measurements from Hyper-Kamiokande could resolve discrepancies in the cosmic star formation rate during the peak epoch around redshifts 1.5 to 3.

Contribution

It proposes using diffuse supernova neutrino background measurements to distinguish between different star formation history models.

Findings

HK can discriminate star formation histories within 1.6-20 years.

Neutrino spectrum assumptions significantly affect discrimination capability.

Potential to resolve existing discrepancies in star formation rate estimates.

Abstract

Multiple astrophysical probes of the cosmic star formation history yield widely different inferences of this rate at redshifts z > 1. While all probes seem to indicate a period of peak star formation known as the cosmic noon between 1.5 < z < 3, the detailed inferences from these probes are in disagreement. In particular, the magnitude of the peak star formation rate density indicated by H-alpha data is higher by a factor of ~ 4 compared to the magnitude of the peak indicated by UV/IR data. In this work, we explore the potential of future measurements of the diffuse supernova neutrino background at the Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) experiment to resolve the discrepancy and help pin down the magnitude of the peak cosmic star formation rate. We find that, depending upon the cosmic core-collapse supernova neutrino spectrum, HK loaded with 0.1% Gadolinium by mass has the potential to discriminate between the different star formation histories with between 1.6-20 years of data collection.