The cosmic supernova neutrino background

Models of cosmic chemical evolution, observations of damped Ly alpha systems, and faint galaxy surveys provide reliable estimates of the global star formation history of the universe to redshifts beyond unity. The associated evolution of the supernova rate can thus be determined with reasonable accuracy. Core collapse supernovae are copious sources of neutrinos, and produce an integrated neutrino flux at Earth of similar to 10 neutrinos cm(-2) s(-1) for each flavor While terrestrial and extraterrestrial backgrounds exceed this signal below similar to 15 MeV and above similar to 40 MeV, the intermediate energy band may allow detection of the neutrino background from supernovae, thus providing a unique tracer of the cosmic star formation history. We employ recent cosmic chemical evolution studies to derive the global supernova rate and provide a simple scheme to clearly indicate the dependencies on cosmological, galactic, and stellar evolution parameters. We estimate a typical flux similar to 0.2 +/- 0.1 cm(-2) s(-1) in the relevant 20-30 MeV window. This flux is significantly lower than current limits, but is potentially detectable. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.