A deuterated scintillator for supernova neutrinos

Bhavesh Chauhan, Ph.D.; University of Iowa

In the event of a galactic supernova, operational neutrino telescopes will observe the neutrino events several hours before their optical counterparts. Existing detectors, which rely mostly on charged-current interactions, are primarily sensitive to electron-antineutrino, and at a lesser extent to electron-neutrino. In order to measure the flux of other flavors (muon- and tau- neutrino and antineutrino), we need to observe the neutral-current interactions. A deuterium-based detector, similar to SNO, will be sensitive to all neutrino flavors. In this talk, I will discuss our proposal for a kton-scale deuterated liquid scintillator (DLS) based detector that can detect both neutral-current and charged-current events from a supernova near the galactic center. I will also discuss the possibility of extracting spectral information from the neutral-current channel. Lastly, I will mention the potential for such a detector in the solar neutrino sector.