Inverting a supernova: neutrino mixing, temperatures and binding energy

Abstract

We show that the temperatures of the emergent non-electron neutrinos and the binding energy released by a galactic Type II supernova are determinable, assuming the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) solution is correct, from observations at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and at Super-Kamiokande (SK). If the neutrino mass hierarchy is inverted, either a lower or upper bound can be placed on the neutrino mixing angle θ13, and the hierarchy can be deduced for adiabatic transitions. For the normal hierarchy, neither can θ13 be constrained nor can the hierarchy be determined. Our conclusions are qualitatively unchanged for the proposed Hyper-Kamiokande detector.