Optimising the reconstruction and analysis of supernova neutrinos at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will operate cutting-edge liquid-argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) detectors on an enormous scale. LArTPC detectors provide unprecedented spatial and calorimetric resolution, so careful analysis of the images produced by the detectors promises to deliver high event-selection efficiencies and low backgrounds for a range of physics studies. LArTPC detector modules with total fiducial mass of at least 40kt will be located deep underground, at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. A key aim for DUNE is to use the large-scale LArTPC detectors to search for supernova neutrino bursts. Should a core-collapse supernova occur within our galaxy during the lifetime of DUNE, measurement of the flux of low-energy neutrinos would provide a wealth of new information about the early stages of core collapse. DUNE aims to measure the flavour, energy and time structure of the neutrino burst, which may be a few tens of seconds in length and comprise neutrinos of all flavours, with energies of a few tens of MeV. In this project, the Pandora multi-algorithm pattern-recognition software will be deployed, tuned and developed to optimise the reconstruction of such low-energy neutrinos, based on the images recorded in the LArTPC detectors. Existing Pandora algorithms will be retuned, and all-new algorithms will be designed and implemented, with the impacts on the reconstruction documented carefully. The high-level reconstruction will also be reviewed and optimised, including such key properties as reconstructed neutrino directions and energies. The optimised event reconstruction will then be used in the context of a DUNE analysis to gauge the sensitivity to the physics of core-collapse supernova, in conjunction with the DUNE low-energy physics working group.