2004/12/31 by Enrico Nardi, Jorge I. Zuluaga · 15 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Measurements of neutrino speed #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino detector #Neutrino oscillation #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Sensitivity (control systems) #Solar neutrino #Solar neutrino problem #Supernova #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2005.10.009
published in Nuclear Physics B 731(1-2), 140-163 (Elsevier BV) · 28 pages, 5 Figures, added discussion on systematic errors and some clarifications. Results unchanged. Published version
openalex publication_date 2005/11/03 · arxiv created 2006/01/23 · arxiv updated 2010/04/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the constraints on neutrino masses that could be derived from the observation of a Galactic supernova neutrino signal with present and future neutrino detectors. Our analysis is based on a recently proposed method that uses the full statistics of neutrino events and does not depend on particular astrophysical assumptions. The statistical approach, originally justified mainly in terms of intuitive reasoning, is put on a more solid basis by means of Bayesian inference reasoning. Theoretical uncertainties in the neutrino signal time profiles are estimated by applying the method to two widely different supernova models. Present detectors can reach a sensitivity down to 1 eV. This is better than limits from tritium β-decay experiments, competitive with the most conservative results from neutrinoless double β-decay, less precise but less dependent from prior assumptions than cosmological bounds. Future megaton water Cerencov detectors will allow for about a factor of two improvement. However, they will not be competitive with the next generation of laboratory experiments.