Cosmic relic supernova neutrinos
Prof. Grant J. Mathews
Center for Astrophysics
University of Notre Dame
The universe is permeated with a diffuse background of cosmic relic neutrinos that records the history of every supernova that has occurred since the beginning of star formation. As such this background is a valuable probe of both cosmic history and the physics of supernova explosions. This talk will review the computation of and associated uncertainties in the current understanding of the relic neutrino background due to core-collapse supernovae, black hole formation and neutron-star merger events. We consider the current status of uncertainties due to the nuclear equation of state (EoS), the progenitor masses, the source supernova neutrino spectrum, the cosmological star formation rate, the stellar initial mass function, neutrino oscillations, and neutrino self-interactions. We summarize the current viability of future neutrino detectors to distinguish the physics of supernovae via the detected relic supernova neutrino spectrum.