Estimating the explosion time of core-collapse supernovae from their optical light curves

D. F. Cowen, A. Franckowiak, M. Kowalski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Core-collapse supernovae are among the prime candidate sources of high energy neutrinos. Accordingly, the IceCube collaboration has started a program to search for such a signal. IceCube operates an online search for neutrino bursts, forwarding the directions of candidate events to a network of optical telescopes for immediate follow-up observations. If a supernova is identified from the optical observations, in addition to a directional coincidence a temporal γ s(-) ν coincidence also needs to be established. To achieve this, we present a method for estimating the supernova explosion time from its light curve using a simple model. We test the model with supernova light curve data from SN1987A, SN2006aj and SN2008D and show that the explosion times can be determined with an accuracy of better than a few hours.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)19-23
Number of pages5
JournalAstroparticle Physics
Volume33
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics

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