Detecting High-Energy Neutrinos from Galactic Supernovae with ATLAS.

Area of Science:

• Particle Physics
• Astrophysics
• Neutrino Physics

Background:

• Supernovae are powerful cosmic explosions that emit vast numbers of neutrinos.
• Detecting these neutrinos provides crucial information about supernova mechanisms and the early universe.
• Current neutrino observatories have limitations in detecting specific types of supernova neutrinos.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the capability of the ATLAS detector in measuring the flux of high-energy supernova neutrinos.
• To explore the potential of ATLAS as a unique neutrino observatory for flavor and particle discrimination.
• To analyze the expected event rates from potential Galactic supernovae.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing Monte Carlo simulations to model predicted supernova neutrino fluxes.
• Analyzing the expected number of starting and throughgoing events for a supernova at 10 kpc.
• Examining specific cases of Galactic supernovae, such as Betelgeuse and Eta Carinae.

Main Results:

• ATLAS can detect a measurable flux of high-energy supernova neutrinos, occurring days to months post-explosion.
• Simulations predict O(0.1-1) starting events and O(10-100) throughgoing events from a 10 kpc supernova.
• The detector shows potential for discriminating between neutrino flavors and identifying neutrinos versus antineutrinos.

Conclusions:

• The ATLAS detector demonstrates a unique capability to measure supernova neutrino fluxes and distinguish particle types.
• Even with limited statistics, ATLAS can serve as a valuable neutrino observatory, offering unprecedented discrimination power.
• This research highlights a new avenue for astrophysical observations using collider detectors.