The long baseline between the Earth and the Sun makes solar neutrinos an excellent test beam for exploring possible neutrino decay. The signature of such decay would be an energy-dependent distortion of the traditional survival probability which can be fit for using well-developed and high precision analysis methods. Here a model including neutrino decay is fit to all three phases of $^8$B solar neutrino data taken by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. This fit constrains the lifetime of neutrino mass state $ u_2$ to be ${>8.08times10^{-5}}$ s/eV at $90%$ confidence. An analysis combining this SNO result with those from other solar neutrino experiments results in a combined limit for the lifetime of mass state $ u_2$ of ${>1.04times10^{-3}}$ s/eV at $99%$ confidence.
Neutrons produced in nuclear interactions initiated by cosmic-ray muons present an irreducible background to many rare-event searches, even in detectors located deep underground. Models for the production of these neutrons have been tested against previous experimental data, but the extrapolation to deeper sites is not well understood. Here we report results from an analysis of cosmogenically produced neutrons at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. A specific set of observables are presented, which can be used to benchmark the validity of GEANT4 physics models. In addition, the cosmogenic neutron yield, in units of $10^{-4};text{cm}^{2}/left(text{g}cdotmuright)$, is measured to be $7.28 pm 0.09;text{stat.} ^{+1.59}_{-1.12};text{syst.}$ in pure heavy water and $7.30 pm 0.07;text{stat.} ^{+1.40}_{-1.02};text{syst.}$ in NaCl-loaded heavy water. These results provide unique insights into this potential background source for experiments at SNOLAB.
Experimental tests of Lorentz symmetry in systems of all types are critical for ensuring that the basic assumptions of physics are well-founded. Data from all phases of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a kiloton-scale heavy water Cherenkov detector, are analyzed for possible violations of Lorentz symmetry in the neutrino sector. Such violations would appear as one of eight possible signal types in the detector: six seasonal variations in the solar electron neutrino survival probability differing in energy and time dependence, and two shape changes to the oscillated solar neutrino energy spectrum. No evidence for such signals is observed, and limits on the size of such effects are established in the framework of the Standard Model Extension, including 40 limits on perviously unconstrained operators and improved limits on 15 additional operators. This makes limits on all minimal, Dirac-type Lorentz violating operators in the neutrino sector available for the first time.
Tests on $B-L$ symmetry breaking models are important probes to search for new physics. One proposed model with $Delta(B-L)=2$ involves the oscillations of a neutron to an antineutron. In this paper a new limit on this process is derived for the data acquired from all three operational phases of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment. The search was concentrated in oscillations occurring within the deuteron, and 23 events are observed against a background expectation of 30.5 events. These translate to a lower limit on the nuclear lifetime of $1.48times 10^{31}$ years at 90% confidence level (CL) when no restriction is placed on the signal likelihood space (unbounded). Alternatively, a lower limit on the nuclear lifetime was found to be $1.18times 10^{31}$ years at 90% CL when the signal was forced into a positive likelihood space (bounded). Values for the free oscillation time derived from various models are also provided in this article. This is the first search for neutron-antineutron oscillation with the deuteron as a target.
A search has been performed for neutrinos from two sources, the $hep$ reaction in the solar $pp$ fusion chain and the $ u_e$ component of the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB), using the full dataset of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory with a total exposure of 2.47 kton-years after fiducialization. The $hep$ search is performed using both a single-bin counting analysis and a likelihood fit. We find a best-fit flux that is compatible with solar model predictions while remaining consistent with zero flux, and set a one-sided upper limit of $Phi_{hep} < 30times10^{3}~mathrm{cm}^{-2}~mathrm{s}^{-1}$ [90% credible interval (CI)]. No events are observed in the DSNB search region, and we set an improved upper bound on the $ u_e$ component of the DSNB flux of $Phi^mathrm{DSNB}_{ u_e} < 19~textrm{cm}^{-2}~textrm{s}^{-1}$ (90% CI) in the energy range $22.9 < E_ u < 36.9$~MeV.
Neutron production in GeV-scale neutrino interactions is a poorly studied process. We have measured the neutron multiplicities in atmospheric neutrino interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment and compared them to the prediction of a Monte Carlo simulation using GENIE and a minimally modified version of GEANT4. We analyzed 837 days of exposure corresponding to Phase I, using pure heavy water, and Phase II, using a mixture of Cl in heavy water. Neutrons produced in atmospheric neutrino interactions were identified with an efficiency of $15.3%$ and $44.3%$, for Phase I and II respectively. The neutron production is measured as a function of the visible energy of the neutrino interaction and, for charged current quasi-elastic interaction candidates, also as a function of the neutrino energy. This study is also performed classifying the complete sample into two pairs of event categories: charged current quasi-elastic and non charged current quasi-elastic, and $ u_{mu}$ and $ u_e$. Results show good overall agreement between data and Monte Carlo for both phases, with some small tension with a statistical significance below $2sigma$ for some intermediate energies.
SNO Collaboration: B. Aharmim
,S. N. Ahmed
,A. E. Anthony
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(2018)
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"Constraints on Neutrino Lifetime from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory"
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Benjamin Land
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