Project title: Neutriner från supernovor i IceCube och Hyper-Kamiokande
Main applicant: Erin O'Sullivan, Division of High Energy Physics
Grant amount: 3 300 000 SEK for the period 2020-2023
Funder: Starting grant from the Swedish Research Council
Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are challenging to study. They rarely interact with matter and therefore very large detector volumes are required for detection. IceCube is a cubic kilometre neutrino detector consisting of sensors embedded in the ice at the South Pole, for the purpose of detecting neutrinos from extreme processes in the Universe. Hyper-Kamiokande, a future underground detector in Japan, will use 258 kilotons of water as a detector medium. This project will focus on studying neutrinos from supernovae and how they will give us a unique insight into, and a whole new perspective on, the mechanisms behind these spectacular phenomena. Neutrinos can also give an early indication of a supernova, thereby making it possible to study the first light from the event using telescopes sensitive to different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. This project will advance the frontier of multi-messenger astronomy using supernova neutrinos by addressing several aspects: making available, for the first time, key parameters that will help observers detect the star, designing drills to ensure we are ready for the next galactic supernova, and preparing Hyper-Kamiokande, a next generation neutrino detector, to see the diffuse supernova neutrino background.