GPS-Synchronized Monitoring of Core-collapse Supernova Bursts with PandaX-4T via Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nuclear Scattering

TL;DR

This paper presents a GPS-synchronized supernova monitoring system for PandaX-4T that detects neutrino bursts via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, enhancing early supernova detection capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, scalable online supernova monitoring system utilizing xenon detectors and GPS timing for real-time detection of supernova neutrinos.

Findings

High sensitivity to galactic supernovae

Low false-alarm rate achieved

System ready for next-generation detector deployment

Abstract

The landmark detection of neutrinos from SN1987A marked the dawn of neutrino astrophysics. The neutrino burst provided essential insights into fundamental properties of neutrinos, and served as key probes of stellar evolution and supernova dynamics. The recent advancement in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering enables the detection of core-collapse supernova burst neutrinos using tonne-scale liquid xenon detectors originally designed for dark matter direct detection. Leveraging this capability, we developed and deployed an online supernova monitoring system for the PandaX-4T experiment. This system features a GPS module with millisecond-level timing precision, a low false-alarm rate, and high sensitivity to galactic core-collapse supernova explosion events. The methodology is robust, directly scalable, and planned for implementation in the next-generation PandaX-20T experiment.