Ultra-transparent Antarctic ice as a supernova detector
We have simulated the response of a high energy neutrino telescope in deep Antarctic ice to the stream of low energy neutrinos produced by a supernova. The passage of a large flux of MeV-energy neutrinos during a period of seconds will be detected as an excess of single counting rates in all individ...
Published in: | Physical Review D |
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Main Authors: | , , |
Language: | English |
Published: |
1995
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.7359 http://cds.cern.ch/record/292811 |
Summary: | We have simulated the response of a high energy neutrino telescope in deep Antarctic ice to the stream of low energy neutrinos produced by a supernova. The passage of a large flux of MeV-energy neutrinos during a period of seconds will be detected as an excess of single counting rates in all individual optical modules. We update here a previous estimate of the performance of such an instrument taking into account the recent discovery of absorption lengths of several hundred meters for near-UV photons in natural deep ice. The existing AMANDA detector can, even by the most conservative estimates, act as a galactic supernova watch. |
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