A New Multi-Dimensional General Relativistic Neutrino Hydrodynamics Code for Core-Collapse Supernovae IV. The Neutrino Signal

Abstract

Considering general relativistic, two-dimensional (2D) supernova (SN) explosion models of progenitor stars between 8.1 and 27 solar masses, we systematically analyze the properties of the neutrino emission from core collapse and bounce to the post-explosion phase. The models were computed with the Vertex-CoCoNuT code, using three-flavor, energy-dependent neutrino transport in the ray-by-ray-plus approximation. Our results confirm the close similarity of the mean energies of electron antineutrinos and heavy-lepton neutrinos and even their crossing during the accretion phase for stars with M>10 M_sun as observed in previous 1D and 2D simulations with state-of-the-art neutrino transport. We establish a roughly linear scaling of the electron antineutrino mean energy with the proto-neutron star (PNS) mass, which holds in time as well as for different progenitors. Convection inside the PNS affects the neutrino emission on the 10-20% level, and accretion continuing beyond the onset of the explosion prevents the abrupt drop of the neutrino luminosities seen in artificially exploded 1D models. We demonstrate that a wavelet-based time-frequency analysis of SN neutrino signals in IceCube will offer sensitive diagnostics for the SN core dynamics up to at least ~10kpc distance. Strong, narrow-band signal modulations indicate quasi-periodic shock sloshing motions due to the standing accretion shock instability (SASI), and the frequency evolution of such "SASI neutrino chirps" reveals shock expansion or contraction. The onset of the explosion is accompanied by a shift of the modulation frequency below 40-50Hz, and post-explosion, episodic accretion downflows will be signaled by activity intervals stretching over an extended frequency range in the wavelet spectrogram.