Theory 10/Core-collapse supernovae/Neutrino detectors
The Explosion Is Visible Before the Light
The claim
The onset of a core-collapse supernova is set by the ratio of neutrino diffusion time to collapse time, so the neutrino burst precedes the optical signal by hours and reports the progenitor's structure.
01Mechanism
Neutrinos escape the collapsing core while the shock is still forming; their arrival time and energy encode the core's mass and equation of state.
02Prediction
Neutrino arrival should precede light by a predictable interval.
03Refutation
Simultaneous arrival would remove the diffusion argument.
04What makes it checkable
Large neutrino detectors can now register a burst from a nearby supernova and timestamp it against the optical rise.
05Why it was not testable before
Until detectors were large enough, no nearby event had been recorded in neutrinos.