Earth matter effects on the supernova neutrino spectra

Abstract

We explore the earth matter effects on the energy spectra of neutrinos from a supernova. We show that the observations of the energy spectra of $\nu_e$ and $\bar{\nu}_e$ from a galactic supernova may enable us to identify the solar neutrino solution, to determine the sign of $\Delta m^2_{32}$, and to probe the mixing matrix element $|U_{e3}|^2$ to values as low as $10^{-3}$. We point out scenarios in which the matter effects can even be established through the observation of the spectrum at a single detector.