Supernova Neutrino Detection in a liquid Argon TPC

Abstract

A liquid Argon TPC (ICARUS-like) has the ability to detect neutrino bursts from type-II supernova collapses, via three processes: elastic scattering by electrons from all neutrino species, and $\nu_e$ charged current absorption on $Ar$ with production of excited $K$ and $\bar\nu_e$ charged current absorption on $Ar$ with production of excited $Cl$. In this paper we have used new calculations in the random phase approximation (RPA) for the absorption processes. The anti-neutrino reaction $\bar\nu_e ^{40}Ar$ absorption has been considered for the first time. For definiteness, we compute rates for the 3 kton ICARUS detector: 244 events are expected from a supernova at a distance of 10 kpc, without considering oscillation effects. The impact of oscillations in the neutrino rates will be discussed in a separate paper. We also discuss the ability to determine the direction of the supernova.