Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userImproved measurement of $^8$B solar neutrinos with 1.5 kt y of Borexino exposure
76
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We report on an improved measurement of the $^8$B solar neutrino interaction rate with the Borexino experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Neutrinos are detected via their elastic scattering on electrons in a large volume of liquid scintillator. The measured rate of scattered electrons above 3 MeV of energy is $0.223substack{+0.015 -0.016},(stat),substack{+0.006 -0.006},(syst)$ cpd/100 t, which corresponds to an observed solar neutrino flux assuming no neutrino flavor conversion of $Phisubstack{rm ES ^8rm B}=2.57substack{+0.17 -0.18}(stat)substack{+0.07 -0.07}(syst)times$10$^6$ cm$^{-2},$s$^{-1}$. This measurement exploits the active volume of the detector in almost its entirety for the first time, and takes advantage of a reduced radioactive background following the 2011 scintillator purification campaign and of novel analysis tools providing a more precise modeling of the background. Additionally, we set a new limit on the interaction rate of solar $hep$ neutrinos, searched via their elastic scattering on electrons as well as their neutral current-mediated inelastic scattering on carbon, $^{12}$C($ u, u$)$^{12}$C* ($E_{gamma}$= 15.1 MeV).
rate research
Read More
Neutrinos emitted in the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen (CNO) fusion cycle in the Sun are a sub-dominant, yet crucial component of solar neutrinos whose flux has not been measured yet. The Borexino experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy) has a unique opportunity to detect them directly thanks to the detectors radiopurity and the precise understanding of the detector backgrounds. We discuss the sensitivity of Borexino to CNO neutrinos, which is based on the strategies we adopted to constrain the rates of the two most relevant background sources, pep neutrinos from the solar pp-chain and Bi-210 beta decays originating in the intrinsic contamination of the liquid scintillator with Pb-210. Assuming the CNO flux predicted by the high-metallicity Standard Solar Model and an exposure of 1000 daysx71.3 t, Borexino has a median sensitivity to CNO neutrino higher than 3 sigma. With the same hypothesis the expected experimental uncertainty on the CNO neutrino flux is 23%, provided the uncertainty on the independent estimate of the Bi-210 interaction rate is 1.5 cpd/100t. Finally, we evaluated the expected uncertainty of the C and N abundances and the expected discrimination significance between the high and low metallicity Standard Solar Models (HZ and LZ) with future more precise measurement of the CNO solar neutrino flux.
We present the first simultaneous measurement of the interaction rates of $pp$, $^7$Be, and $pep$ solar neutrinos performed with a global fit to the Borexino data in an extended energy range (0.19-2.93)$,$MeV. This result was obtained by analyzing 1291.51$,$days of Borexino Phase-II data, collected between December 2011 and May 2016 after an extensive scintillator purification campaign. We find: rate($pp$)$,$=$,$$134$$,$$pm$$,$$10$$,$($stat$)$,$$^{rm +6}_{rm -10}$$,$($sys$)$,$cpd/100$,$t, rate($^7$Be)$,$=$,$$48.3$$,$$pm$$,$$1.1$$,$($stat$)$,$$^{rm +0.4}_{rm -0.7}$$,$($sys$)$,$cpd/100$,$t, and rate($pep$)$,$=$,$$2.43$$pm$$,$$0.36$$,$($stat$)$^{+0.15}_{-0.22}$$,$($sys$)$,$cpd/100$,$t. These numbers are in agreement with and improve the precision of our previous measurements. In particular, the interaction rate of $^7$Be $ u$s is measured with an unprecedented precision of 2.7%, showing that discriminating between the high and low metallicity solar models is now largely dominated by theoretical uncertainties. The absence of $pep$ neutrinos is rejected for the first time at more than 5$,$$sigma$. An upper limit of $8.1$$,$cpd/100$,$t (95%$,$C.L.) on the CNO neutrino rate is obtained by setting an additional constraint on the ratio between the $pp$ and $pep$ neutrino rates in the fit. This limit has the same significance as that obtained by the Borexino Phase-I (currently providing the tightest bound on this component), but is obtained by applying a less stringent constraint on the $pep$ $ u$ flux.
Borexino is a large-volume liquid scintillator detector installed in the underground halls of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. After several years of construction, data taking started in May 2007. The Borexino phase I ended after about three years of data taking. Borexino provided the first real time measurement of the $^{7}$Be solar neutrino interaction rate with accuracy better than 5% and confirmed the absence of its day-night asymmetry with 1.4% precision. This latter Borexino results alone rejects the LOW region of solar neutrino oscillation parameters at more than 8.5 $sigma$ C.L. Combined with the other solar neutrino data, Borexino measurements isolate the MSW-LMA solution of neutrino oscillations without assuming CPT invariance in the neutrino sector. Borexino has also directly observed solar neutrinos in the 1.0-1.5 MeV energy range, leading to the first direct evidence of the $pep$ solar neutrino signal and the strongest constraint of the CNO solar neutrino flux up to date. Borexino provided the measurement of the solar $^{8}$B neutrino rate with 3 MeV energy threshold.
Liquid scintillator detectors play a central role in the detection of neutrinos from various sources. In particular, it is the only technique used so far for the precision spectroscopy of sub-MeV solar neutrinos, as demonstrated by the Borexino experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. The benefit of a high light yield, and thus a low energy threshold and a good energy resolution, comes at the cost of the directional information featured by water Cherenkov detectors, measuring $^8$B solar neutrinos above a few MeV. In this paper we provide the first directionality measurement of sub-MeV solar neutrinos which exploits the correlation between the first few detected photons in each event and the known position of the Sun for each event. This is also the first signature of directionality in neutrinos elastically scattering off electrons in a liquid scintillator target. This measurement exploits the sub-dominant, fast Cherenkov light emission that precedes the dominant yet slower scintillation light signal. Through this measurement, we have also been able to extract the rate of $^{7}$Be solar neutrinos in Borexino. The demonstration of directional sensitivity in a traditional liquid scintillator target paves the way for the possible exploitation of the Cherenkov light signal in future kton-scale experiments using liquid scintillator targets. Directionality is important for background suppression as well as the disentanglement of signals from various sources.
Borexino collaboration reported about first measurement of solar CNO-$ u$ interaction rate in Borexino detector. This result is consistent with Hydridic Earth model prediction about the contribution of $^{40}$K geo-antineutrino interactions in single Borexino events. The potassium abundance in the Earth in the range $1 div 1.5$% of the Earth mass could give the observed enhancement of counting rate above expected CNO-$ u$ counting rate. The Earth intrinsic heat flux must be in the range $200 div 300$ TW for this potassium abundance. This value of the heat flux can explain the ocean heating observed by the project ARGO. We consider that Hydridic Earth model actually corresponds better to CNO-$ u$ Borexino results than Silicate Earth model.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
