Supernova Model Discrimination with Hyper-Kamiokande

Supernovae are among the most magnificent events in the observable universe. They produce many of the chemical elements necessary for life to exist and their remnants---neutron stars and black holes---are interesting astrophysical objects in their own right. However, despite millennia of observations and almost a century of astrophysical study, the explosion mechanism of supernovae is not yet well understood. Hyper-Kamiokande is a next-generation neutrino detector that will be able to observe the neutrino flux from the next galactic supernova in unprecedented detail. In this thesis, I investigate how well such an observation would allow us to reconstruct the explosion mechanism. I develop a high-precision supernova event generator and use a detailed detector simulation and event reconstruction to explore Hyper-Kamiokande's response to five supernova models simulated by different groups around the world. I show that 300 neutrino events in Hyper-Kamiokande---corresponding to a supernova at a distance of at least 60 kpc---are sufficient to distinguish between these models with high accuracy. These findings indicate that, once the next galactic supernova happens, Hyper-Kamiokande will be able to determine details of the supernova explosion mechanism.