Supernovae neutrinos as a probe for neutrino mass and supernovae explosion mechanism

In recent years there have been several neutrino detectors built to detect solar, atmospheric, and cosmic neutrinos. In this dissertation, we used a Monte Carlo approach to model both the SuperKamiokande (SuperK) detector in Japan, and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Canada. A neutrino flux produced by a supernova code was implemented to simulate a realistic signal. An analysis of the minimum neutrino mass which could be detected was then performed for SuperK which produced discrepancies for the zero tau mass case when compared to previous work using a smooth emission spectrum as the incident neutrino source. As a result, we reconstructed the neutrino parameters involved in the supernovae explosion mechanism, to correct this discrepancy and determined the minimum mass for a realistic source. The source reconstruction is also useful for empirically determining the explosion mechanism when the next galactic supernova event occurs, since at present, this mechanism is still not entirely understood.