Untangling supernova-neutrino oscillations with β-beam data

Abstract

Recently, we suggested that low-energy \ensuremath{\beta}-beam neutrinos can be very useful for the study of supernova-neutrino interactions. In this article, we examine the use of a such experiment for the analysis of a supernova-neutrino signal. Because supernova neutrinos are oscillating, it is very likely that the terrestrial spectrum of supernova neutrinos of a given flavor will not be the same as the energy distribution with which these neutrinos were first emitted. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method for untangling multiple neutrino spectra. This is an essential feature of any model aiming at gaining information about the supernova mechanism, probing proto-neutron star physics, and understanding supernova nucleosynthesis, such as the neutrino process and the r-process. We also consider the efficacy of different experimental approaches including measurements at multiple beam energies and detector configurations.