Pre-Supernova Alert System for Super-Kamiokande with Gadolinium

The current phase of the Super-Kamiokande experiment, SK-Gd, is characterized by the addition of gadolinium sulfate to the water Cherenkov detector, which improves the detection capability of thermal neutrons. For low energy events, the main detection channel for electron anti-neutrinos is the Inverse Beta Decay interaction, which has, in its final state, a positron and a neutron. The neutron thermal capture by gadolinium emits an 8 MeV gamma-ray cascade, improving the identification of the products of this process. This improved identification reduces the background for low energy events, allowing the analysis of neutrinos with en- ergies below the usual Super-Kamiokande thresholds. One possible detection by SK-Gd is the neutrinos coming from pre-Supernova stars, which correspond to the last evolutionary state of massive stars before core-collapse Supernova. During this stage, pair annihilation and beta decay processes are the main cooling mechanisms of the massive stars, emitting high fluxes of electron anti-neutrinos. Their detection could provide an early warning for core-collapse Supernovae. The techniques for the development of the pre-Supernova alert system for SK-Gd are presented in this thesis