POSSIBILITY THAT HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRINO TELESCOPES COULD DETECT SUPERNOVAE

We have simulated the response of a high energy neutrino telescope to the stream of low energy neutrinos produced by a supernova. The nominal threshold of such detectors is in the GeV energy range. The passage of a large flux of MeV neutrinos during a period of seconds will nevertheless be detected as an excess of single counting rates in all individual optical modules. Detectors under construction, which consist of roughly 200 modules, will be able to detect a galactic supernova at or above the 5 sigma level. The rate of fake signals is, however, too large for the telescope to serve as a neutrino watch. Such capability requires detectors with roughly 3 times the number of optical modules; thus, this will be within easy reach of the next generation detectors.