Estimating the Explosion Time of Core-collapse Supernovae from Their Optical Light Curves

Core-collapse supernovae are among the prime candidate sources of high energy neutrinos and gravity waves. The detection prospects for neutrinos and gravity waves can be greatly enhanced through cross-correlation with the well established optical photon signal. The significance of the correlation improves with the resolution on the supernova explosion time determined from the optical data. We present a method for estimating the supernova explosion time from its light curve using a simple model. With the light curves of SN2006aj and SN2008D, we show that the explosion times can be determined with an accuracy of less than 4 hours, and we quantify the importance of acquiring data points as early as possible after the supernova explosion time. Subject headings: Neutrinos, Gravity Waves, Supernovae, Detection Methods