Detectability of gravitational effects of supernova neutrino emission through pulsar timing

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae emit on the order of 3x10^53 ergs in high-energy neutrinos over a time of order 10 seconds, and so decrease their mass by about 0.2 solar mass. If the explosion is nearly spherically symmetric, there will be little gravitational wave emission. Nevertheless, the sudden decrease of mass of the progenitor may cause a change in the gravitational time delay of signals from a nearby pulsar. We calculate the change in arrival times as successive pulses pass through the neutrino shell at different times, and find that the effect may be detectable in ideal circumstances.