Supernova (SN) explosions are ultra-energetic transient astronomical events. The most massive stars—at least 8 times greater than our Sun—see their life end with the collapse of their core as it runs out of fuel, causing a Core-Collapse Supernova (CCSN). The vast majority of this energy is released through neutrinos, elementary particles which only weakly interact with matter. Neutrinos produced during a CCSN have only been detected once, during SN 1987A.
Neutrino production inside evolved massive stars increases towards the end of their life, during the pre-Supernova (pre-SN) phase, as does the average neutrino energy. Improving the sensitivity of neutrino detectors at Earth and lowering their energy threshold for detection would allow these neutrinos to be detected and consequently, nearby pre-SN stars. These neutrinos can then be used as an early warning system for CCSN, as probes into the structure and composition of pre-SN stars, or towards bettering our understanding of neutrino physics.
This project's aim is to optimise the current pre-SN alarm at the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in Japan, modelling the expected neutrino flux for different pre-SN models.