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Pre-Supernova Alert System for Super-Kamiokande
- Source :
- The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 935, Number 1 (2022)
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- In 2020, the Super-Kamiokande (SK) experiment moved to a new stage (SK-Gd) in which gadolinium (Gd) sulfate octahydrate was added to the water in the detector, enhancing the efficiency to detect thermal neutrons and consequently improving the sensitivity to low energy electron anti-neutrinos from inverse beta decay (IBD) interactions. SK-Gd has the potential to provide early alerts of incipient core-collapse supernovae through detection of electron anti-neutrinos from thermal and nuclear processes responsible for the cooling of massive stars before the gravitational collapse of their cores. These pre-supernova neutrinos emitted during the silicon burning phase can exceed the energy threshold for IBD reactions. We present the sensitivity of SK-Gd to pre-supernova stars and the techniques used for the development of a pre-supernova alarm based on the detection of these neutrinos in SK, as well as prospects for future SK-Gd phases with higher concentrations of Gd. For the current SK-Gd phase, high-confidence alerts for Betelgeuse could be issued up to nine hours in advance of the core-collapse itself.<br />Comment: 20 pages
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 935, Number 1 (2022)
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.2205.09881
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7f9c