Search for Supernova Neutrino Bursts at Super‐Kamiokande

M Ikeda,R Wendell,K Washburn,Y Takenaga,T Kajita,W R Kropp,G Guillian,H W Sobel,K Inoue,K Okumura,M Yokoyama,C Ishihara,K Abe,G Mitsuka,K Nitta,N Tanimoto,Y Takeuchi,Y Totsuka,J L Stone,Y Gando,S Nakayama,B S Yang,Y Suzuki,T Ishii,T Kobayashi,M Malek,I Higuchi,H Sekiya,H Maesaka,S Moriyama,T J Haines,M B Smy,S Likhoded,M Sakuda,Y Watanabe,S Mine,Y Koshio,G W Sullivan,R Gran,R Svoboda,H Okazawa,Y Fukuda,T Nakadaira,N Tamura,J S Jang,Y Idehara,M Shiozawa,Y Kuno,K Ishihara,M Goldhaber,R W Ellsworth,Y Itow,A Minamino,R J Wilkes,H Ishii,J Zalipska,M Nakahata,C Mitsuda,J G Learned,J Yoo,T Hasegawa,J Dunmore,W E Keig,S Desai,I T Lim,A K Ichikawa,C Saji,C W Walter,J Kameda,H Watanabe,S Hatakeyama,M Ishitsuka,J P Cravens,C Mcgrew,T Nakaya,M D Messier,W Wang,T Ishizuka,T Sato,D Casper,A Habig,Y Obayashi,S Tasaka,S Dazeley,K Kaneyuki,S Chen,T Iwashita,A Sarrat,Y Oyama,T Sasaki,S Clark,E Kearns,C K Jung,H Berns,S B Kim,M Litos,S Matsuno,Y Choi,T Koike,Y Hayato,D W Liu,J Hill,K Ueshima,J L Raaf,J Y Kim,Y Furuse,K Scholberg,M R Vagins,K Hiraide,M Koshiba,Y Liu,H Ishino,K Nishikawa,E Thrane,K Nishijima,K S Ganezer,M Hasegawa,C Yanagisawa,R Terri,C Regis,A L Stachyra ,Kazuyoshi Kobayashi ,Shuji Yamamoto ,A Suzuki ,Z Y Deng ,Takashi Kato ,Takayuki Tanaka ,Shoichi Yamada ,L Sulak ,Toru Ishida ,Makoto Miura ,Hitoshi Nishino ,Kenzo Nakamura ,D Turčan ,Masato Yoshida ,Tsutomu Iida ,H Seo ,Atsushi Takeda ,Kiyoshi Shiraishi ,Masaaki Sugihara ,D Kiełczewska ,Frédéric Dufour ,Hiroshi Ogawa

doi:10.1086/521547

Abstract

The result of a search for neutrino bursts from supernova explosions using the Super-Kamiokande detector is reported. Super-Kamiokande is sensitive to core-collapse supernova explosions via observation of their neutrino emissions. The expected number of events comprising such a burst is ~10^4 and the average energy of the neutrinos is in few tens of MeV range in the case of a core-collapse supernova explosion at the typical distance in our galaxy (10 kiloparsecs); this large signal means that the detection efficiency anywhere within our galaxy and well past the Magellanic Clouds is 100%. We examined a data set which was taken from May, 1996 to July, 2001 and from December, 2002 to October, 2005 corresponding to 2589.2 live days. However, there is no evidence of such a supernova explosion during the data-taking period. The 90% C.L. upper limit on the rate of core-collapse supernova explosions out to distances of 100 kiloparsecs is found to be 0.32 SN/year.

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