Potential for supernova neutrino detection in MiniBooNE

Abstract

The MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab is designed to search for ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{e}$ oscillation appearance at ${E}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}\ensuremath{\sim}1 \mathrm{GeV}$ 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 \ifmmode \check{C}\else \v{C}\fi{}erenkov 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 ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}+\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{p}{e}^{+}+n$ 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.