Science from detection of neutrinos from supernovae

The neutrinos emitted from supernovae contain information about the physics of stellar collapse and of the nature of the neutrinos themselves. Several large detectors exist that will be capable of observing some subset of those neutrinos. In addition, we have designed OMNIS, the Observatory for Multiflavour NeutrInos from Supernovae. OMNIS will detect the neutrinos from (a) neutral-current interactions from νe, νµ, ν̄µ, ντ and ν̄τ, and (b) charged-current interactions from high-momentum νe, with lead nuclei. It will utilize two types of detectors: (1) lead slabs alternating with vertical planes of neutron detectors, in which neutrons produced by neutrino–lead interactions will be detected, and (2) lead perchlorate, in which both the resulting neutrons and Cerenkov light will be detected. OMNIS will measure neutrino masses below 100 eV, provide new information on MSW or vacuum oscillations from νµ/ντ to νe, especially to 13, and possibly diagnose the process of collapse to a black hole. It will observe the late-time evolution of the neutrino distributions, and possibly se