A high precision calorimeter for hunting the sterile neutrino in the SOX experiment

Abstract A thermal calorimetric apparatus was designed, built and calibrated for measuring the activity of the artificial 144 Ce —144 Pr antineutrino source. This measurement will be performed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, just before the source insertion in the tunnel under the Borexino detector and a precision better than 1% is required for a disappearance technique measurement in the SOX (Short distance neutrino Oscillation with BoreXino) project. In this work the apparatus is described and the most important results from the calibration measurements are shown, where the final precision of few per thousand is demonstrated.

Solar neutrino physics with Borexino

We present the most recent solar neutrino results from the Borexino experiment at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. In particular, refined measurements of all neutrinos produced in the {\it pp} fusion chain have been made. It is the first time that the same detector measures the entire range of solar neutrinos at once. These new data weakly favor a high-metallicity Sun. Prospects for measuring CNO solar neutrinos are also discussed.

The measurement of the pp chain solar neutrinos in Borexino

Search for low-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources with Borexino

We report on searches for neutrinos and antineutrinos from astrophysical sources performed with the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. Electron antineutrinos ($\bar{\nu}_e$) are detected in an organic liquid scintillator through the inverse $\beta$-decay reaction. In the present work we set model-independent upper limits in the energy range 1.8-16.8 MeV on neutrino fluxes from unknown sources that improve our previous results, on average, by a factor 2.5. Using the same data set, we first obtain experimental constraints on the diffuse supernova $\bar{\nu}_e$ fluxes in the previously unexplored region below 8 MeV. A search for $\bar{\nu}_e$ in the solar ne…

Perspectives for CNO neutrino detection in Borexino

International audience; Borexino measured with unprecedented accuracy the fluxes of solar neutrinos emitted at all the steps of the pp fusion chain. Still missing is the measurement of the flux of neutrinos produced in the CNO cycle. A positive measurement of the CNO neutrino flux is of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of stars and addressing the unresolved controversy on the solar abundances. The measurement of the CNO neutrino flux in Borexino is challenging because of the low intensity of this component (CNO cycle accounts for about 1% of the energy emitted by Sun), the lack of prominent spectral features and the presence of background sources. The main background c…

Theia: an advanced optical neutrino detector

The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields 80(5), 416 (2020). doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7977-8

Solar neutrino spectroscopy in Borexino

International audience; In more than ten years of operation, Borexino has performed a precision measurement of the solar neutrino spectrum, resolving almost all spectral components originating from the proton-proton fusion chain. The presentation will review the results recently released for the second data taking phase 2012–2016 during which the detector excelled by its unprecedentedly low background levels. New results on the rate of pp, 7Be, pep and 8B neutrinos as well as their implications for solar neutrino oscillations and metallicity are discussed.

Simultaneous precision spectroscopy of pp, Be7, and pep solar neutrinos with Borexino Phase-II

We present the simultaneous measurement of the interaction rates Rpp, RBe, Rpep of pp, Be7, and pep solar neutrinos performed with a global fit to the Borexino data in an extended energy range (0.19–2.93) MeV with particular attention to details of the analysis methods. This result was obtained by analyzing 1291.51 days of Borexino Phase-II data, collected after an extensive scintillator purification campaign. Using counts per day (cpd)/100 ton as unit, we find Rpp=134±10(stat)−10+6(sys), RBe=48.3±1.1(stat)−0.7+0.4(sys); and RpepHZ=2.43±0.36(stat)−0.22+0.15(sys) assuming the interaction rate RCNO of CNO-cycle (Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxigen) solar neutrinos according to the prediction of the high…

A calorimeter for the precise determination of the activity of the 144Ce-144Pr anti-neutrino source in the SOX experiment

We describe the design and the performance of a high precision thermal calorimeter, whose purpose was the measurement of the total activity of the 144Ce-144Pr anti-neutrino source of the SOX (Short distance neutrino Oscillation with BoreXino) experiment. SOX aimed at the search for eV-scale sterile neutrinos by means of the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy and of a very powerful artificial anti-neutrino source located at 8.51 m from the detector center. In order to obtain the required sensitivity, the activity of the source (approximately 150 kCi) had to be known at 1% precision. In this work we report the design of the experimental apparatus and the res…

Calibration campaign of the Borexino detector for the search of sterile neutrinos with SOX

Abstract The SOX (Short distance Oscillations with boreXino) experiment aims to investigate possible anomalous oscillatory behaviours in neutrinos, including the existence of sterile neutrinos, by exploiting the very low radioactive background of the Borexino detector. A calibration campaign is crucial to achieve a deeper understanding of the energy response and the spatial reconstruction accuracies of the detector. It will be performed with a suite of low-activity radioactive sources which will map the whole active volume, especially nearby the inner vessel. The calibration points at the border of the active zones will be extremely important to study the neutron detection efficiency. The c…