16.–22. Sept. 2026
Erice
Europe/Berlin Zeitzone

A Pre-Supernova Neutrino Sensitivity Study for Hyper-Kamiokande

21.09.2026, 16:00
15m
Lecture Hall San Domenico

Lecture Hall San Domenico

Talk Talks

Sprecher

Ellie O'Brien (University of Sheffield, UK)

Beschreibung

The first detection of supernova burst neutrinos was achieved through the observation
of SN1987A [1], almost four decades ago. However, neutrinos produced during the
burning stages of a massive star prior to core collapse are yet to be detected. In
particular, neutrinos from the silicon core and shell burning phases, with typical
energies of a few MeV [2], may be detectable with current and next generation neutrino
detectors [3]. Integrating pre-supernova models into a neutrino event generator would
help to provide a unified framework for studying this source of neutrinos.

sntools [4] is a neutrino event generator for supernova burst neutrinos, originally
developed to study supernova model discrimination with Hyper-Kamiokande [5]. It
currently supports a range of detector geometries, detection materials, input formats
for neutrino fluxes generated from computer simulations and can use any core collapse
supernova model implemented within the Python package SNEWPY [6]. The output file
produced can be directly fed into detector simulation software to simulate the detector
response to these interactions.

In this talk, I will begin by introducing pre-supernova neutrinos and the importance of
their detection. Following this, I will describe work to add support for pre-supernova
event generation to sntools, emphasizing how time binning can be optimised for a
robust simulation. Finally, I will present the progress I have made towards using sntools
to generate the signal MC for a pre-supernova neutrino sensitivity study for the Hyper
Kamiokande Experiment, outlining the current status and future plans for the work.

[1] K. Hirata et al., “Observation of a neutrino burst from the supernova SN1987a,” Physical Review
Letters, vol. 58, no. 14, pp. 1490–1493, Apr. 6, 1987. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.1490.
[2] C. Kato, K. Ishidoshiro, and T. Yoshida, “Theoretical prediction of presupernova neutrinos and their
detection,” Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, vol. 70, pp. 121–145, Volume 70, 2020 Oct. 19,
2020, issn: 0163-8998, 1545-4134. doi: 10.1146/annurev-nucl-040620-021320.
[3] A. Odrzywolek, M. Misiaszek, and M. Kutschera, “Detection possibility of the pair annihilation
neutrinos from the neutrino-cooled pre-supernova star,” Astroparticle Physics, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 303
313, Jun. 1, 2004, issn: 0927-6505. doi: 10.1016/ j.astropartphys.2004.02.002.
[4] J. Migenda et al., “Sntools: An event generator for supernova burst neutrinos,” Journal of Open Source
Software, vol. 6, no. 60, p. 2877, Apr. 15, 2021, issn: 2475 9066. doi: 10.21105/joss.02877
[5] K. Abe et al., “Supernova model discrimination with hyper-kamiokande,” The Astrophysical Journal,
vol. 916, no. 1, p. 15, Jul. 2021, issn: 0004-637X. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/abf7c4.
[6] A. Baxter et al., “SNEWPY: A data pipeline from supernova simulations to neutrino signals,” Journal of
Open Source Software, vol. 6, no. 67, p. 3772, Nov. 27, 2021, issn: 2475-9066. doi: 10.21105/joss.03772.

Autor

Ellie O'Brien (University of Sheffield, UK)

Co-Autoren

Patrick Stowell (University of Sheffield) Susan Cartwright (University of Sheffield)

Präsentationsmaterialien

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