Iron as a Detector for Neutrinos from Collapsing Stars

Abstract

The interaction of the flux of electron neutrinos arising owing to the effect of the rotationalcollapse mechanism at the first stage of supernova burst with LSD components, such as ⁵⁶Fe (a large amount of this metal is contained in LSD as a shielding material) and С_nH_2n+2 liquid scintillator, is investigated. Both charged and neutral channels of neutrino interaction with ¹²С and ⁵⁶Fe are considered. Experimental data that make it possible to extract information necessary for calculating nuclear matrix elements appearing in the expression for the interaction cross section are used. The number of signals generated in LSD by the neutrino pulse from the Supernova 1987A is determined. The results of this study are in good agreement with experimental data.