Collaborative Research: SNEWS: The SuperNova Neutrino Early Warning System

The Supernova Neutrino Early Warning System (SNEWS) project involves an international collaboration of researchers representing supernova neutrino detectors (currently Super-K, SNO, LVD, AMANDA, KamLAND, Borexino and MiniBooNE). The SNEWS system will be able to provide a completely automated early warning of a supernova's occurrence to the globe-wide astronomical community by exploiting the prompt neutrino signals that arrive several hours before the shock breakout that produces the first optical signs of the explosion. The warning will be based on a coincidence of neutrino signals from detectors around the world. It may also be able to provide a trigger for other detectors, such as LIGO.

This collaborative proposal is from the MIT and University of Minnesota-Duluth groups and requests funding for a program to build on the existing SNEWS inter-experiment network, to enhance its robustness and to increase the confidence of the astronomical community in this project. In particular, the groups wish to employ personnel to upgrade the network system, to increase the redundancy of the network by adding servers and to provide on-call physicists with communication devices.

In the education/outreach area, SNEWS already involves both graduate and undergraduate students. However, this proposal is devoted to developing the amateur astronomer community as an integral part of the early warning system, since it is very likely that the location of a new supernova will be pinpointed first by an amateur. Specifically, the groups plan to recruit members of the general public, including both experts and novices in astronomy.