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Forthcoming Events

A deuterated liquid scintillator for low-energy neutrino detection

Dr. Bhavesh Chauhan, BITS Pilani

Location : AB2-5A
Abstract: In this talk, I will describe our proposal for a kton scale deuterated liquid scintillator (DLS) detector and its capabilities for studying low-energy supernova neutrinos. For the next galactic supernova, operational neutrino telescopes relying on charged current interactions are mostly sensitive to electron-antineutrino and to a lesser extent to electron-neutrino. In order to measure the flux of other flavors, we need to observe their neutral current interactions with the detector. Such a measurement is not only crucial for the overall normalization of the supernova neutrino flux but also for understanding the intricate neutrino oscillation physics. A deuterium-based neutrino detector, similar to SNO, will be sensitive to all neutrino flavors. The DLS will see about 435 neutral current events and about 280 charged current events from a fiducial supernova at a distance of 10 kpc from Earth. We explore the possibility of extracting spectral information from the neutral current channel by measuring the quenched kinetic energy of the proton in the final state, where the neutron in the final state is tagged and used to reduce backgrounds. Such a detector also has excellent potential to observe and study solar neutrinos. I will also discuss some preliminary results from the ongoing study about the opportunities, feasibility, and challenges in developing such a detector.

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