Abstract

Paleo-detectors are a proposed experimental technique in which one would search for traces of recoiling nuclei in ancient minerals. I will first discuss the potential of paleo-detectors to measure nuclear recoils induced by neutrinos from galactic core collapse supernovae. We find that they would not only allow for a direct measurement of the average core collapse supernova rate in the Milky Way, but would also contain information about the time-dependence of the local supernova rate over the past 1Gyr. I will also discuss more recent work on the potential sensitivity of paleo-detectors to atmospheric neutrinos, a signal which avoids many of the backgrounds more relevant to searches for lower energy recoils but is also subject to significant systematic uncertainties.