M. Joyce

Measurement of the solar 8B neutrino rate with a liquid scintillator target and 3 MeV energy threshold in the Borexino detector

G. Bellini, J. Benziger, S. Bonetti, M. Buizza Avanzini, B. Caccianiga, L. Cadonati, F. Calaprice, C. Carraro, A. Chavarria, A. Chepurnov, F. Dalnoki-Veress, D. D’Angelo, S. Davini, H. de Kerret, A. Derbin, A. Etenko, K. Fomenko, D. Franco, C. Galbiati, S. Gazzana, C. Ghiano, M. Giammarchi, M. Goeger-Neff, A. Goretti, E. Guardincerri, S. Hardy, Aldo Ianni, Andrea Ianni, M. Joyce, G. Korga, D. Kryn, M. Laubenstein, M. Leung, T. Lewke, E. Litvinovich, B. Loer, P. Lombardi, L. Ludhova, I. Machulin, S. Manecki, W. Maneschg, G. Manuzio, Q. Meindl, E. Meroni, L. Miramonti, M. Misiaszek, 11 D. Montanari, V. Muratova, L. Oberauer, M. Obolensky, F. Ortica, M. Pallavicini, L. Papp, L. Perasso, S. Perasso, A. Pocar, R.S. Raghavan, G. Ranucci, A. Razeto, A. Re, P. Risso, A. Romani, D. Rountree, A. Sabelnikov, R. Saldanha, C. Salvo, S. Schönert, H. Simgen, M. Skorokhvatov, O. Smirnov, A. Sotnikov, S. Sukhotin, Y. Suvorov, 9 R. Tartaglia, G. Testera, D. Vignaud, R.B. Vogelaar, F. von Feilitzsch, J. Winter, M. Wojcik, A. Wright, M. Wurm, J. Xu, O. Zaimidoroga, S. Zavatarelli, and G. Zuzel

Observation of Geo{Neutrinos

Geo–neutrinos, electron anti–neutrinos produced in β decays of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in the Earth, are a unique direct probe of our planet’s interior. We report the first observation at more than 3σ C.L. of geo–neutrinos, performed with the Borexino detector at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Anti–neutrinos are detected through the neutron inverse β decay reaction. With a 252.6 ton·yr fiducial exposure after all selection cuts, we detected 9.9 −3.4( +14.6 −8.2 ) geo–neutrino events, with errors corresponding to a 68.3% (99.73%) C.L. From the lnL profile, the statistical significance of the Borexino geo-neutrino observation corresponds to a 99.997% C.L. Our measurement of the geo–neutrinos rate is 3.9 −1.3( +5.8 −3.2) events/(100 ton·yr). The observed prompt positron spectrum above 2.6 MeV is compatible with that expected from european nuclear reactors (mean base line of approximately 1000 km). Our measurement of reactor anti–neutrinos excludes the non-oscillation hypothesis at 99.60% C.L. This measurement rejects the hypothesis of an active geo-reactor in the Earth’s core with a power above 3 TW at 95% C.L.

Muon and Cosmogenic Neutron Detection in Borexino

Borexino, a liquid scintillator detector at LNGS, is designed for the detection of neutrinos and antineutrinos from the Sun, supernovae, nuclear reactors, and the Earth. The feeble nature of these signals requires a strong suppression of backgrounds below a few MeV. Very low intrinsic radiogenic contamination of all detector components needs to be accompanied by the efficient identification of muons and of muon-induced backgrounds. Muons produce unstable nuclei by spallation processes along their trajectory through the detector whose decays can mimic the expected signals; for isotopes with half-lives longer than a few seconds, the dead time induced by a muon-related veto becomes unacceptably long, unless its application can be restricted to a sub-volume along the muon track. Consequently, not only the identification of muons with very high efficiency but also a precise reconstruction of their tracks is of primary importance for the physics program of the experiment. The Borexino inner detector is surrounded by an outer water-Cherenkov detector that plays a fundamental role in accomplishing this task. The detector design principles and their implementation are described. The strategies adopted to identify muons are reviewed and their efficiency is evaluated. The overall muon veto efficiency is found to be 99.992 % or better. Ad-hoc track reconstruction algorithms developed are presented. Their performance is tested against muon events of known direction such as those from the CNGS neutrino beam, test tracks available from a dedicated External Muon Tracker and cosmic muons whose angular distribution reflects the local overburden profile. The achieved angular resolution is ~ 3?-5? and the lateral resolution is ~ 35-50 cm, depending on the impact parameter of the crossing muon. The methods implemented to efficiently tag cosmogenic neutrons are also presented.

Solar neutrino results from Borexino and main future perspectives

Abstract Borexino is a solar neutrino experiment running at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. The radioactive background levels in the liquid scintillator target meet or even exceed design goals, opening unanticipated opportunities. The main results, so far, are the measurement of the 7 Be solar neutrino flux (the first ever done) and the measurement of the 8 B neutrino flux performed with electron energy threshold of 2.8xa0MeV. The short and medium term perspectives are summarized in the conclusions.

Scintillator purification, detector performance and first results from Borexino

The Borexino experiment has begun data taking in May 2007 after a long R&D work and preparation. The liquid scintillator purity exceeds even optimistic expectations, and the first detection of 7Be solar neutrinos has been possible after less than two months of data taking. This note shows briefly which are the main issues that were addressed in order to obtain such an extreme radiopurity, the detector performance and a few details concerning this first result.

Production and suppression of {sup 11}C in the solar neutrino experiment Borexino

Cosmogenic {sup 11}C is produced in-situ by atmospheric muons and forms the main background for the measurement of solar pep- and CNO-neutrinos. However, FLUKA simulations show that the majority of {sup 11}C is accompanied by a free neutron in the final state, thus allowing for an efficient tagging method, the so-called Three-Fold Coincidence technique. The technique and its first applications on Borexino data are presented.

Production and suppression of 11Cin the solar neutrino experiment Borexino

Cosmogenic {sup 11}C is produced in-situ by atmospheric muons and forms the main background for the measurement of solar pep- and CNO-neutrinos. However, FLUKA simulations show that the majority of {sup 11}C is accompanied by a free neutron in the final state, thus allowing for an efficient tagging method, the so-called Three-Fold Coincidence technique. The technique and its first applications on Borexino data are presented.

Production and suppression of 11C in the solar neutrino experiment Borexino

Cosmogenic {sup 11}C is produced in-situ by atmospheric muons and forms the main background for the measurement of solar pep- and CNO-neutrinos. However, FLUKA simulations show that the majority of {sup 11}C is accompanied by a free neutron in the final state, thus allowing for an efficient tagging method, the so-called Three-Fold Coincidence technique. The technique and its first applications on Borexino data are presented.

First results on 7Be solar neutrinos from the Borexino real time detector

The Borexino experiment started the data taking may 15th 2007. It is until now the only experiment able to detect in real time neutrino interactions below 2 MeV. This is due to the very high radio-purity reached by the detector, more than one order of magnitude better than the goal of the design. The detector allows the single fluxes of low energy solar neutrinos to be determined from all sources not previously studied: 7Be, pep, CNO and hopefully pp. Here the first measurement of the 7Be, obtained from the first 47.6 live days of data taking, is presented.