The SNO+ Experiment

Abstract

The SNO+ experiment is located 2 km underground at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Canada. A low background search for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu \beta \beta$) decay will be conducted using 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator loaded with 3.9 tonnes of natural tellurium, corresponding to 1.3 tonnes of ${}^{130}$Te. This paper provides a general overview of the SNO+ experiment, including detector design, construction of process plants, commissioning efforts, electronics upgrades, data acquisition systems, and calibration techniques. The SNO+ collaboration is reusing the acrylic vessel, PMT array, and electronics of the SNO detector, having made a number of experimental upgrades and essential adaptations for use with the liquid scintillator. With low backgrounds and a low energy threshold, the SNO+ collaboration will also pursue a rich physics program beyond the search for $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay, including studies of geo- and reactor antineutrinos, supernova and solar neutrinos, and exotic physics such as the search for invisible nucleon decay. The SNO+ approach to the search for $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay is scalable: a future phase with high ${}^{130}$Te-loading is envisioned to probe an effective Majorana mass in the inverted mass ordering region.

arXiv comment61 pages, 23 figures, 4 tables

References in corpus (53)

• First Results from KamLAND: Evidence for Reactor Anti-Neutrino Disappearance
• Leptogenesis as the origin of matter
• Status and Future of Nuclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: A Review
• The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• Helioseismology and Solar Abundances
• Neutrino Signal of Electron-Capture Supernovae from Core Collapse to Cooling
• The Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
• Status of non-standard neutrino interactions
• New Solar Composition: The Problem With Solar Models Revisited
• Helioseismological Implications of Recent Solar Abundance Determinations
• Current Status and Future Prospects of the SNO+ Experiment
• 10,000 Standard Solar Models: a Monte Carlo Simulation
• SNEWS: The SuperNova Early Warning System
• Non standard neutrino interactions
• Experimental evidence of neutrinos produced in the CNO fusion cycle in the Sun
• The event generator DECAY4 for simulation of double beta processes and decay of radioactive nuclei
• Simultaneous Precision Spectroscopy of $pp$, ${}^7$Be, and $pep$ Solar Neutrinos with Borexino Phase-II
• Measurement of the ${\nu }_e$ and Total ${}^8$B Solar Neutrino Fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Phase I Data Set
• Initial Performance of the COSINE-100 Experiment
• The Detector System of The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment
• The SABRE project and the SABRE PoP
• Measurement of the Two-Neutrino Double Beta Decay Half-life of ${}^{130}$Te with the CUORE-0 Experiment
• Design and Construction of the DEAP-3600 Dark Matter Detector
• Geo-neutrinos and Earth's interior
• Measurement of the ${\nu }_e$ and Total ${}^8$B Solar Neutrino Fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Phase-III Data Set
• A Scintillator Purification System for the Borexino Solar Neutrino Detector
• Measurement of the Cosmic Ray and Neutrino-Induced Muon Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• Scintillation decay time and pulse shape discrimination in oxygenated and deoxygenated solutions of linear alkylbenzene for the SNO+ experiment
• Search for invisible modes of nucleon decay in water with the SNO+ detector
• The 16N Calibration Source for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• Measurement of the ${}^8$B Solar Neutrino Flux in SNO+ with Very Low Backgrounds
• Metal-loaded organic scintillators for neutrino physics
• Solar Models with Revised Abundances and Opacities
• Development, characterisation, and deployment of the SNO+ liquid scintillator
• Measurement of the proton light response of various LAB based scintillators and its implication for supernova neutrino detection via neutrino-proton scattering
• Light propagation and fluorescence quantum yields in liquid scintillators
• Optical calibration hardware for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• CNO Neutrino Grand Prix: The race to solve the solar metallicity problem
• The 8Li Calibration Source for the Sudbury Neutrino Obervatory
• Cosmogenic activation of a natural tellurium target
• Measurement of the dependence of the light yields of linear alkylbenzene-based and EJ-301 scintillators on electron energy
• A Method to Load Tellurium in Liquid Scintillator for the Study of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Light Absorption Properties of the High Quality Linear Alkylbenzene for the JUNO Experiment
• Measurement of neutron-proton capture in the SNO+ water phase
• Measurement of $\alpha$-particle quenching in LAB based scintillator in independent small-scale experiments
• An Overview of the KamLAND 1-kiloton Liquid Scintillator
• High sensitivity measurement of 224Ra and 226Ra in water with an improved hydrous titanium oxide technique at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• Pulse-shape discrimination of scintillation from alpha and beta particles with liquid scintillator and Geiger-mode multipixel avalanche diodes
• Study of digital pulse shape discrimination method for n-γ separation of EJ-301 liquid scintillation detector
• The calibration system for the photomultiplier array of the SNO+ experiment
• Triplet Lifetime in Gaseous Argon
• A Scintillator Purification Plant and Fluid Handling System for SNO+
• Commissioning of ELLIE for SNO+

Cited by in corpus (64)

• Toward the discovery of matter creation with neutrinoless double-beta decay
• Measurement of geo-neutrinos from 1353 days of Borexino
• Solar neutrino spectrum, sterile neutrinos and additional radiation in the Universe
• KamLAND Sensitivity to Neutrinos from Pre-Supernova Stars
• Vanishing effective mass of the neutrinoless double beta decay including light sterile neutrinos
• Final Result on the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay of ${}^{82}$Se with CUPID-0
• NEXT, a HPGXe TPC for neutrinoless double beta decay searches
• Towards Precise and Accurate Calculations of Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: Project Scoping Workshop Report
• Development, characterisation, and deployment of the SNO+ liquid scintillator
• Neutrino Physics with an Opaque Detector
• Unraveling the $0\nu \beta \beta$ Decay Mechanisms
• Neutrinoless $\beta \beta$-decay nuclear matrix elements from two-neutrino $\beta \beta$-decay data
• Review of Novel Approaches to Organic Liquid Scintillators in Neutrino Physics
• Solar neutrino physics
• Solar neutrino-electron scattering as background limitation for double beta decay
• Correlated and Integrated Directionality for sub-MeV solar neutrinos in Borexino
• The XLZD Design Book: Towards the Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
• Improved search for invisible modes of nucleon decay in water with the SNO+ detector
• Measurement of the dependence of the light yields of linear alkylbenzene-based and EJ-301 scintillators on electron energy
• Evidence of Antineutrinos from Distant Reactors using Pure Water at SNO+
• Pre-Supernova Alert System for Super-Kamiokande
• Probing Beyond the Standard Model Physics with Double-beta Decays
• Correlations Between Neutrinoless Double-Beta, Double Gamow-Teller and Double-Magnetic Decays in the pnQRPA Framework
• Inferring the nature of active neutrinos: Dirac or Majorana?
• Solubility, Light Output and Energy Resolution Studies of Molybdenum-Loaded Liquid Scintillators
• Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Sensitivity of the XLZD Rare Event Observatory
• Event-by-Event Direction Reconstruction of Solar Neutrinos in a High Light-Yield Liquid Scintillator
• Measurement of proton light yield of water-based liquid scintillator
• Searching for ${}^{76}$Ge neutrinoless double beta decay with the CDEX-1B experiment
• Implications on Cosmology from Dirac Neutrino Magnetic Moments
• Observation of low-lying isomeric states in ${}^{136}$Cs: a new avenue for dark matter and solar neutrino detection in xenon detectors
• Enhancing Direct Detection of Higgsino Dark Matter
• Optical calibration of the SNO+ detector in the water phase with deployed sources
• Fluorescence emission of the JUNO liquid scintillator
• Initial measurement of reactor antineutrino oscillation at SNO+
• Refractive index in the JUNO liquid scintillator
• Neutrinoless double beta decay and the muonium-to-antimuonium transition in models with a doubly charged scalar
• Measurements of Rayleigh Ratios in Linear Alkylbenzene
• Combining Hybrid and Opaque Scintillator Techniques in the Search for Double Beta Plus Decays
• Measurement of reactor antineutrino oscillation at SNO+
• Muon g-2, Long-Range Muon Spin Force, and Neutrino Oscillations
• Measurement of the ${}^8$B Solar Neutrino Flux Using the Full SNO+ Water Phase Dataset
• First Evidence of Solar Neutrino Interactions on ${}^{13}$C
• Study on U/Th residual radioactivity in acrylic from surface treatment
• Taking Neutrino Pictures via Electrons
• Neutron source-based event reconstruction algorithm in large liquid scintillator detectors
• Muon tracking in a LiquidO opaque scintillator detector
• Measurement of gas properties for the ion-TPC of N$\nu$DEx experiment
• Calculation and comparison of sensitivities in $0\nu \beta \beta$ experiments based on key parameters
• A laserball calibration device for the SNO+ scintillator phase
• Characterization of the Hamamatsu 8-inch R14688-100 PMT
• Searching for beyond-Standard-Model solar neutrino interactions using directional detectors
• Performance of a spherical high pressure gas TPC for neutrino magnetic moment measurement
• Reactor Antineutrinos Signal all over the world
• EstrellaNueva: an open-source software to study the interactions and detection of neutrinos emitted by supernovae
• Canadian Contributions to the Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Measurement of reactor antineutrino oscillations with 1.46 ktonne-years of data at SNO+
• Fluorescence time profile measurement of LAB based liquid scintillator in response to medium relativistic ion particles
• NaI(Tl) crystal scintillator encapsulated in two organic-scintillator layers with pulse shape data analysis
• Evidence for neutron-induced $\mathbf{\gamma }$-ray emissions in the vicinity of the $\mathbf{Q}$ value of ${}^{76}\text{Ge}$ $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay
• An Alternative Design for Large Scale Liquid Scintillator Detectors
• Supernova Detection at SNOLAB
• Detection horizon for the neutrino burst from the stellar helium flash
• Ab initio short-range nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double-beta decay