Supernova neutrino detection in NOvA

Acero, M. A.; Adamson, P.; Agam, G.; Aliaga, L.; Alion, T.; Allakhverdian, V.; Anfimov, N.; Antoshkin, A.; Arrieta-Diaz, E.; Asquith, L.; Aurisano, A.; Back, A.; Backhouse, C.; Baird, M.; Balashov, N.; Baldi, P.; Bambah, B. A.; Bashar, S.; Bays, K.; Bending, S.; Bernstein, R.; Bhatnagar, V.; Bhuyan, B.; Bian, J.; Blair, J.; Booth, A. C.; Bour, P.; Bowles, R.; Bromberg, C.; Buchanan, N.; Butkevich, A.; Bychkov, V.; Calvez, S.; Carroll, T. J.; Catano-Mur, E.; Childress, S.; Choudhary, B. C.; Coan, T. E.; Colo, M.; Corwin, L.; Cremonesi, L.; Davies, G. S.; Derwent, P. F.; Ding, P.; Djurcic, Z.; Dolce, M.; Doyle, D.; Duenas Tonguino, D.; Dukes, E. C.; Dung, P.; Duyang, H.; Edayath, S.; Ehrlich, R.; Elkins, M.; Feldman, G. J.; Filip, P.; Flanagan, W.; Franc, J.; Frank, M. J.; Gallagher, H. R.; Gandrajula, R.; Gao, F.; Germani, S.; Giri, A.; Gomes, R. A.; Goodman, M. C.; Grichine, V.; Groh, M.; Group, R.; Guo, B.; Habig, A.; Hakl, F.; Hall, A.; Hartnell, J.; Hatcher, R.; Hatzikoutelis, A.; Heller, K.; Hewes, J.; Himmel, A.; Holin, A.; Howard, B.; Huang, J.; Hylen, J.; Jediny, F.; Johnson, C.; Judah, M.; Kakorin, I.; Kalra, D.; Kaplan, D. M.; Keloth, R.; Klimov, O.; Koerner, L. W.; Kolupaeva, L.; Kotelnikov, S.; Kubu, M.; Kullenberg, Ch.; Kumar, A.; Kuruppu, C. D.; Kus, V.; Lackey, T.; Lang, K.; Li, L.; Lin, S.; Lister, A.; Lokajicek, M.; Luchuk, S.; Magill, S.; Mann, W. A.; Marshak, M. L.; Martinez-Casales, M.; Matveev, V.; Mayes, B.; Mendez, D. P.; Messier, M. D.; Meyer, H.; Miao, T.; Miller, W. H.; Mishra, S. R.; Mislivec, A.; Mohanta, R.; Moren, A.; Morozova, A.; Mualem, L.; Muether, M.; Mufson, S.; Mulder, K.; Murphy, R.; Musser, J.; Naples, D.; Nayak, N.; Nelson, J. K.; Nichol, R.; Nikseresht, G.; Niner, E.; Norman, A.; Norrick, A.; Nosek, T.; Olshevskiy, A.; Olson, T.; Paley, J.; Patterson, R. B.; Pawloski, G.; Petrova, O.; Petti, R.; Plunkett, R. K.; Psihas, F.; Rafique, A.; Raj, V.; Ramson, B.; Rebel, B.; Rojas, P.; Ryabov, V.; Samoylov, O.; Sanchez, M. C.; Sanchez Falero, S.; Seong, I. S.; Shanahan, P.; Sheshukov, A.; Singh, P.; Singh, V.; Smith, E.; Smolik, J.; Snopok, P.; Solomey, N.; Sousa, A.; Soustruznik, K.; Strait, M.; Suter, L.; Sutton, A.; Sweeney, C.; Talaga, R. L.; Tapia Oregui, B.; Tas, P.; Thayyullathil, R. B.; Thomas, J.; Tiras, E.; Torbunov, D.; Tripathi, J.; Tsaris, A.; Torun, Y.; Urheim, J.; Vahle, P.; Vallari, Z.; Vasel, J.; Vokac, P.; Vrba, T.; Wallbank, M.; Warburton, T. K.; Wetstein, M.; Whittington, D.; Wickremasinghe, D. A.; Wojcicki, S. G.; Wolcott, J.; Yallappa Dombara, A.; Yonehara, K.; Yu, S.; Yu, Y.; Zadorozhnyy, S.; Zalesak, J.; Zhang, Y.; Zwaska, R.

doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2020/10/014

The NOvA long-baseline neutrino experiment uses a pair of large, segmented, liquid-scintillator calorimeters to study neutrino oscillations, using GeV-scale neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI beam. These detectors are also sensitive to the flux of neutrinos which are emitted during a core-collapse supernova through inverse beta decay interactions on carbon at energies of O(10 MeV). This signature provides a means to study the dominant mode of energy release for a core-collapse supernova occurring in our galaxy. We describe the data-driven software trigger system developed and employed by the NOvA experiment to identify and record neutrino data from nearby galactic supernovae. This technique has been used by NOvA to self-trigger on potential core-collapse supernovae in our galaxy, with an estimated sensitivity reaching out to 10 kpc distance while achieving a detection efficiency of 23% to 49% for supernovae from progenitor stars with masses of 9.6 M☉ to 27 M☉, respectively.