Towards multi-messenger observations of core-collapse supernovae harbouring choked jets

¹ Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Astronomical Institute (AIRUB), Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
² Department of Physics, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma, P. le Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Rome, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università La Sapienza, P. le Aldo Moro 2, I-00185 Rome, Italy
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-8440, USA

Received: 24 March 2024
Accepted: 29 August 2024

Abstract

Context. Over the past decade, choked jets have attracted particular attention as potential sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. It is challenging to test this hypothesis because of the missing gamma-ray counterpart. An identification of other electromagnetic signatures is therefore crucial. Extended H envelopes surrounding collapsing massive stars might choke launched jets. In addition, the same progenitors are expected to produce a shock-breakout signal in the ultraviolet (UV) and optical that lasts several days. Early UV radiation in particular carries important information about the presence and nature of choked jets.

Aims. While UV observations of core-collapse supernovae have so far been limited, the full potential of observations in this spectral band will soon be transformed by the ULTRASAT satellite mission with its unprecedented field of view. We investigated the detection prospects of choked jet progenitors by ULTRASAT in relation to their visibility in the optical band by the currently operating telescope ZTF. In addition, as choked jets can produce neutrinos via hadronic and photohadronic interactions in choked jets, we also investigated how neutrino observations by existing Cherenkov high-energy neutrino telescopes (e.g. IceCube and KM3NeT) can be used in association with electromagnetic signals from shock-breakout events.

Methods. By considering fiducial parameters of the source population and instrument performances, we estimated the maximum redshift up to which ULTRASAT and ZTF are able to detect ultraviolet and optical signals from these explosions, respectively. Furthermore, we discuss coordinated multi-messenger observations using ULTRASAT, ZTF, and high-energy neutrino telescopes.

Results. We find that ULTRASAT will double the volume of the sky that is currently visible by ZTF for the same emitting sources. This will enlarge the sample of observed Type II supernovae by ∼60%. For optimised multi-messenger detections, the delay between neutrinos produced at the shock breakout (during the jet propagation inside the stellar envelope) and ULTRASAT observations should be of ∼4 (5) days, with subsequent follow-up by instruments such as ZTF about one week later. We estimate that fewer than 1% of the core-collapse supernovae from red supergiant stars that are detectable in UV with ULTRASAT might host a choked jet and release TeV neutrinos. Electromagnetic and neutrino detections, if accompanied by additional photometric and spectroscopic follow-up with compelling evidence for a relativistic jet launched by the central engine of the source, would suggest that core-collapse supernovae harbouring choked jets are the main contributors to the diffuse astrophysical high-energy neutrino flux.