Non-thermal neutrinos from supernovae leaving a magnetar

Abstract

Under the fossil field hypothesis of the origin of magnetar magnetic fields, the magnetar inherits its magnetic field from its progenitor. We show that during the supernova of such a progenitor, protons may be accelerated to ∼104 GeV as the supernova shock propagates in the stellar envelope. Inelastic nuclear collisions of these protons produce a flash of high-energy neutrinos arriving a few hours after thermal (10 MeV) neutrinos. The neutrino flash is characterized by energies up to O(100) GeV and durations seconds to hours, depending on the progenitor: those from smaller Type Ibc progenitors are typically shorter in duration and reach higher energies compared to those from larger Type II progenitors. A Galactic Type Ib supernova leaving behind a magnetar remnant will yield up to ∼160 neutrino-induced muon events in Super-Kamiokande, and up to ∼7000 in a km3 class detector such as IceCube, providing a means of probing supernova models and the presence of strong magnetic fields in the stellar envelope. © 2008 RAS.