UC San Diego

We calculate the luminosity and energy spectrum of the neutrino emission from electron-positron pair annihilation during the collapse of a supermassive star (M ≳ 5 × 104 M⊙). We then estimate the cumulative flux and energy spectrum of the resulting neutrino background as a function of the abundance and redshift of supermassive stars and the efficiency of these objects in converting gravitational energy into neutrino energy. We estimate the expected signal in some of the new generation of astrophysical neutrino detectors from both a cumulative background of supermassive stars and single collapse events associated with these objects. © 1998. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.