Reconstruction of supernova {\nu}_{\mu}, {\nu}_{\tau}, anti-{\nu}_{\mu}, and anti-{\nu}_{\tau} neutrino spectra at scintillator detectors

Understand

We present a new technique to directly reconstruct the spectra of mu/tau neutrinos and antineutrinos from a supernova, using neutrino-proton elastic scattering events (nu+p to nu+p) at scintillator detectors.

• These neutrinos, unlike electron neutrinos and antineutrinos, have only neutral current interactions, which makes it very challenging, with any reaction, to detect them and measure their energies.
• With updated inputs from theory and experiments, we show that this channel provides a robust and sensitive measure of their spectra.
• Given the low yields and lack of spectral information in other neutral current channels, this is perhaps the only realistic way to extract such information.