Supernova Model Discrimination with Hyper-Kamiokande

Understand

Core-collapse supernovae are among the most magnificent events in the observable universe.

• They produce many of the chemical elements necessary for life to exist and their remnants -- neutron stars and black holes -- are interesting astrophysical objects in their own right.
• However, despite millennia of observations and almost a century of astrophysical study, the explosion mechanism of core-collapse supernovae is not yet well understood.
• Hyper-Kamiokande is a next-generation neutrino detector that will be able to observe the neutrino flux from the next galactic core-collapse supernova in unprecedented detail.