MeV neutrinosfrom Massive Evolved Stars

Abstract

Neutrino astronomy has recently drawn attention as a part of multi-messenger astronomy. Detecting neutrinos from astronomical ob jects would enable us to explore governing processes that cannot be observed with electromagnetic waves. Stars emit neutrinos during thei r e volution, mostly at MeV energies. So far, MeV neutrinos have been observed from the Sun and SN 1987A, but not from other stellar object s d ue to the difficulties of detecting low energy neutrinos. However, as the detector size keeps increasing and the detector technology keeps improving, MeV neutrinos from sources other than the Sun will eventually be observable. In this talk, we present a recent study on the possi bil ity of observing neutrinos from massive evolved stars, such as red supergiant (RSG) stars, which are expected to emit a large amount of neutri nos . Following the evolution of massive stars, we calculate the energy spectrum of neutrinos emitted through various production processes du rin g late stages, including the carbon burning stage, and estimate the flux of such neutrinos from nearby RSGs on the Earth. We then investigate t he prospect of detecting them in neutrino observatories, especially based on hybrid type technology using a water based scintillator.