Projections for measuring the size of the solar core with neutrino-electron scattering

Abstract

We quantify the amount of data needed in order to measure the size and position of the ${}^8$B neutrino production region within the solar core, for experiments looking at elastic scattering between electrons and solar neutrinos. The directions of the electrons immediately after scattering are strongly correlated with the incident directions of the neutrinos, however this is degraded significantly by the subsequent scattering of these electrons in the detector medium. We generate distributions of such electrons for different neutrino production profiles, and use a maximum likelihood analysis to make projections for future experimental sensitivity. We find that with approximately 20 years worth of data the Super Kamiokande experiment could constrain the central radius of the shell in which ${}^8$B neutrinos are produced to be less than 0.22 of the total solar radius at 95% confidence.

5 pages, 2 figures. Matches version accepted to PRL. Improved 2D analysis and results discussion

References in corpus (7)

• Solar neutrino measurements in Super-Kamiokande-II
• Solar Neutrino Measurements in Super-Kamiokande-IV
• Fresh insights on the structure of the solar core
• A possible indication of momentum-dependent asymmetric dark matter in the Sun
• IAU 2015 Resolution B3 on Recommended Nominal Conversion Constants for Selected Solar and Planetary Properties
• Solar neutrino physics oscillations: Sensitivity to the electronic density in the Sun's core
• Implications of solar wind measurements for solar models and composition

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Time-integrated directional detection of dark matter
• Dark matter imprint on ${}^8$B neutrino spectrum
• Signatures of afterglows from light dark matter boosted by supernova neutrinos in current and future large underground detectors
• CYG$\nu$S: Detecting solar neutrinos with directional gas time projection chambers
• Taking Neutrino Pictures via Electrons
• A $\nu$ look at the Sun: Probing the conditions of the solar core using ${}^8$B neutrinos