Study of core collapse neutrino signals and constraints on neutrino masses from a future Galactic Supernova

Abstract

We study the sensitivity to neutrino masses of a Galactic supernova neutrino signal as could be measured with the detectors presently in operation and with future large volume water \v{C}erencov and scintillator detectors. The analysis uses the full statistics of neutrino events. The method proposed uses the principles of Bayesian inference reasoning and has shown a remarkably independence of astrophysical assumptions. We show that, after accounting for the uncertainties in the detailed astrophysical description of the neutrino signal and taking into account the effects of neutrino oscillations in the supernova mantle, detectors presently in operation can have enough sensitivity to reveal a neutrino mass (or to set upper limits) at the level of 1 eV. This is sensibly better than present results from tritium $\beta$-decay experiments, competitive with the most conservative limits from neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay and less precise but remarkably less dependent from prior assumptions than cosmological measurements. Future megaton water \v{C}erencov detectors and large volume scintillator detectors will allow for about a factor of two improvement in the sensitivity; however, they will not be competitive with the next generation of tritium $\beta$-decay and neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay experiments. Using the codes developed to perform the generation of synthetic supernova signals and their analysis we created a computer package, SUNG (SUpernova Neutrino Generation tool, http://urania.udea.edu.co/sungweb), aimed to offer a general purpose solution to perform calculations in supernova neutrino studies.