Abstract
The next Galactic core-collapse supernova (SN) is a highly anticipated observational target for neutrino telescopes. However, even prior to collapse, massive dying stars shine copiously in "pre-supernova" (pre-SN) neutrinos, which can potentially act as efficient SN warning alarms and provide novel information about the very last stages of stellar evolution. We explore the sensitivity to pre-SN neutrinos of large scale direct dark matter detection experiments, which, unlike dedicated neutrino telescopes, take full advantage of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. We find that argon-based detectors with target masses of $\mathcal{O}(100)$ tonnes (i.e. comparable in size to the proposed ARGO experiment) operating at sub-keV thresholds can detect $\mathcal{O}(10-100)$ pre-SN neutrinos coming from a source at a characteristic distance of $\sim$200 pc, such as Betelgeuse ($\alpha$ Orionis). Large-scale xenon-based experiments with similarly low thresholds could also be sensitive to pre-SN neutrinos. For a Betelgeuse-type source, large scale dark matter experiments could provide a SN warning siren $\sim$10 hours prior to the explosion. We also comment on the complementarity of large scale direct dark matter detection experiments and neutrino telescopes in the understanding of core-collapse SN.
Highlights
Stars with mass ≳8 M⊙ that ignite nuclear fuel burning nonexplosively explode as core-collapse supernovae (SNe) at the end of their lifetime, leaving behind a compact remnant
We explore the sensitivity to pre-SN neutrinos of large-scale direct dark matter detection experiments, which, unlike dedicated neutrino telescopes, take full advantage of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering
We comment on the complementarity of large-scale direct dark matter detection experiments and neutrino telescopes in the understanding of core-collapse SN
Summary
Stars with mass ≳8 M⊙ that ignite nuclear fuel burning nonexplosively explode as core-collapse supernovae (SNe) at the end of their lifetime (see Ref. [1] for a review), leaving behind a compact remnant. Detection of pre-SN neutrinos will directly probe the very late stages of nuclear fusion processes beyond hydrogen and helium within the SN system, providing vital information about the temperature and density near the star’s core at that time These neutrinos could provide an early supernova warning trigger, dramatically improving upon the current supernova early warning system (SNEWS) [15] network. With heavy nuclei as detector targets, these experiments achieve high detection rates via coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering, whose cross section scales approximately as the neutron number squared This process has recently been directly observed [31]. This paper is organized as follows: In Sec. II, we review the capabilities of future dark matter direct detection experiments, with emphasis on their ability to achieve low energy thresholds suitable for pre-SN neutrino detection.
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