Speaker
Dr
Valery Sinev
(Institute for nuclear researches RAS)
Description
Geoneutrinos indicate the heat produced in the Earth interior through decays of beta-active nuclei. The value of Earth thermal flux is very important for understanding Earth inner structure and element composition. There are three main components of geoneutrinos, they are $^{238}$U, $^{232}$Th and $^{40}$K. Fluxes of first two components are found in experiments of Borexino and KamLAND collaborations. They highly limited the amount of $^{238}$U and $^{232}$Th nuclei in Earth's interior. But flux of $^{40}$K antineutrinos is still unknown because its maximal energy lays below the threshold of reaction used for antineutrino registration (IBD). New proposed experiments have a goal to discover $^{40}$K antineutrino flux.
Knowledge of $^{40}$K geoneutrino flux value is important also for experiments with solar neutrinos that look for CNO cycle neutrinos. This flux makes background for CNO neutrinos because its spectrum lays in the same energetic window.
We propose a new experiment to measure $^{40}$K antineutrinos using the experience of Borexino detector and independent experiment for measuring CNO solar neutrinos. Independent experiment can help subtract CNO background and get $^{40}$K antineutrino flux in a detector of Borexino type.
Summary
Antineutrinos from natural radioactive families 238U and 232Th as well as ones from 40K are connected with Earth thermal flow from interior. Two existing experiments (Borexino and LamLAND) detect these antineutrinos (called geoneutrinos in contrast with solar neutrinos). In our days there is a number of new projects aimed to improve existing knowledge on geoneutrinos. Discovering of high antineutrino flux from 40K can change the Earth model.
Primary author
Dr
Valery Sinev
(Institute for nuclear researches RAS)
Co-authors
Ms
Alexandra Kurlovich
(INR RAS)
Dr
Andrey Mezhokh
(INR RAS)
Dr
Ivan Karpikov
(INR RAS)
Dr
Leonid Bezrukov
(INR RAs)
Ms
Svetlana Silaeva
(INR RAS)
Dr
Valentina Zavarzina
(INR RAS)
