Abstract
When a star undergoes a core-collapse supernova, about 99% of the gravitational binding energy released is in form of neutrinos and antineutrinos of all avours. SN1987A provided the rst and only observation of supernova neutrinos to date. In the near future, more neutrino detectors will be upgraded or constructed, leading to potentially high-statistics observations of neutrinos from the next Galactic supernova.In this thesis we study two examples of how new physics can a ect the detected energy spectrum of neutrinos from a Galactic supernova. First, we investigate how an eV-mass sterile neutrino would suppress the neutrino uxes. We make projections for how well Hyper-Kamiokande would be able to constrain or measure its properties. Second, we show that resonant interactions between neutrinos emitted in a Galactic supernova and dark matter particles may lead to a sharp dip in the neutrino energy spectrum. The JUNO experiment can provide evidence for such couplings due to its excellent energy resolution.
Future direct dark matter detection experiments will be challenged by a background coming from coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering events. We show that a polarised helium-3 detector can be used to reduce this background, improving sensitivity to dark matter.
| Date of Award | 1 Dec 2019 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Malcolm Fairbairn (Supervisor) |