Neutrino signatures of dying massive stars: From main sequence to the neutron star

We present an overview of the life of massive stars from the point of view of neutrino emission. Stars are persistent sources of neutrinos, starting at hydrogen ignition, continuing through the advanced burning stages and culminating during supernova explosion. Finally, the neutrino flux goes to zero as a neutron star cools down or drops rapidly if a black hole is formed. In fact, after helium burning the star's neutrino luminosity outshines its visible photon flux by many orders of magnitude, and the visible supernova is only a pale reflection (< 1=10; 000) of the neutrino signal. Emerging new generations of giant advanced neutrino detectors, from the LAGUNA initiative and other projects, will be able to detect not only the supernova neutrinos, but possibly also pre-supernova neutrinos and the cooling signal of proto-neutron stars.