Supernova Neutrinos and the Neutrino Masses

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae emit of order $10^{58}$ neutrinos and antineutrinos of all flavors over several seconds, with average energies of 10--25 MeV. In the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), a future Galactic supernova at a distance of 10 kpc would cause several hundred events. The $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$ neutrinos and antineutrinos are of particular interest, as a test of the supernova mechanism. In addition, it is possible to measure or limit their masses by their delay (determined from neutral-current events) relative to the $\bar{\nu}_e$ neutrinos (determined from charged-current events). Numerical results are presented for such a future supernova as seen in SNO. Under reasonable assumptions, and in the presence of the expected counting statistics, a $\nu_\mu$ or $\nu_\tau$ mass down to about 30 eV can be simply and robustly determined. This seems to be the best technique for direct measurement of these masses.