Determining the Supernova Direction by its Neutrinos

Abstract

Supernova neutrinos, which arrive at Earth earlier than light, allow for the earliest determination of the direction of the supernova. The topic of this paper is to study how accurately we can determine the supernova direction. We simulate supernova neutrino events at the SuperKamiokande detector, using a realistic supernova model and several realistic neutrino oscillation models. With the results of our simulation, we can restrict the supernova direction to be within a circle of radius $9^\circ$. In several neutrino oscillation models, this accuracy is increased to $8^\circ$. We also discuss the influence of an accident that occurred at the SuperKamiokande detector. After repair of the detector, using the remaining PMTs, the accuracy becomes about $12^\circ$ for no oscillation.