Potential for Supernova Neutrino Detection in MiniBooNE

Abstract

The MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab is designed to search for ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ oscillation appearance at $E_{\nu }\sim 1\mathrm{GeV}$ and to make a decisive test of the LSND signal. The main detector (inside a veto shield) is a spherical volume containing 0.680 ktons of mineral oil. This inner volume, viewed by 1280 phototubes, is primarily a Čerenkov medium, as the scintillation yield is low. The entire detector is under a 3 m earth overburden. Though the detector is not optimized for low-energy (tens of MeV) events, and the cosmic-ray muon rate is high (10 kHz), we show that MiniBooNE can function as a useful supernova neutrino detector. Simple trigger-level cuts can greatly reduce the backgrounds due to cosmic-ray muons. For a canonical Galactic supernova at 10 kpc, about 190 supernova ${\bar{\nu }}_e+p\to e^{+}+n$ events would be detected. By adding MiniBooNE to the international network of supernova detectors, the possibility of a supernova being missed would be reduced. Additionally, the paths of the supernova neutrinos through Earth will be different for MiniBooNE and other detectors, thus allowing tests of matter-affected mixing effects on the neutrino signal.

Added references, version to appear in PRD

References in corpus (7)

• Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations from the Observation of Electron Anti-neutrinos in a Muon Anti-Neutrino Beam
• Weak magnetism for antineutrinos in supernovae
• Supernova Neutrino Detection in Borexino
• Search for Supernova Neutrino-Bursts with the AMANDA Detector
• Physics with Supernovae
• Future galactic supernova neutrino signal: What can we learn?
• Effects of neutrino oscillations on the supernova signal in LVD

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Collective Neutrino Oscillations
• Supernova Neutrino Detection
• SNEWS: The SuperNova Early Warning System
• Absolute Values of Neutrino Masses: Status and Prospects
• Neutrino flavour transformation in supernovae
• A Network of Neutral Current Spherical TPC's for Dedicated Supernova Detection
• Reconstructing supernova-neutrino spectra using low-energy beta-beams
• Neutrinos from type Ia supernovae: the deflagration-to-detonation transition scenario
• New Test of Supernova Electron Neutrino Emission using Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Sensitivity to the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• Supernova Neutrinos: The Accretion Disk Scenario
• Measuring the Cosmic Ray Muon-Induced Fast Neutron Spectrum by (n,p) Isotope Production Reactions in Underground Detectors
• A Search for Core-Collapse Supernovae using the MiniBooNE Neutrino Detector
• Supernova Neutrinos and the LSND Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations
• Realistic Earth matter effects and a method to acquire information about small θ_{13} in the detection of supernova neutrinos
• Supernovae and Neutrinos
• Supernova Neutrinos, LSND and MiniBooNE