How to observe 8B solar neutrinos in liquid scintillator detectors

Abstract

We show that liquid organic scintillator detectors (e.g., KamLAND and Borexino) can measure the 8B solar neutrino flux by means of the nu_e charged current interaction with the 13C nuclei naturally contained in the scintillators. The neutrino events can be identified by exploiting the time and space coincidence with the subsequent decay of the produced 13N nuclei. We perform a detailed analysis of the background in KamLAND, Borexino and in a possible liquid scintillator detector at SNOLab, showing that the 8B solar neutrino signal can be extracted with a reasonable uncertainty in a few years of data taking. KamLAND should be able to extract about 18 solar neutrino events from the already collected data. Prospects for gigantic scintillator detectors (such as LENA) are also studied.

15 pages, 1 figure. Very few changes in the text. Final version to be published on Phys. Lett. B

References in corpus (3)

• Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation with KamLAND: Evidence of Spectral Distortion
• Cosmogenic 11C production and sensitivity of organic scintillator detectors to pep and CNO neutrinos
• KamLAND neutrino spectra in energy and time: Indications for reactor power variations and constraints on the georeactor

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The next-generation liquid-scintillator neutrino observatory LENA
• Large underground, liquid based detectors for astro-particle physics in Europe: scientific case and prospects
• Gadolinium in water Cherenkov detectors improves detection of supernova ${\nu }_e$
• Low energy neutrino astronomy with the large liquid scintillation detector LENA
• Model Independent Approach of the JUNO ${}^8$B Solar Neutrino Program
• Neutrino-13C Cross Sections at Supernova Neutrino Energies
• Detecting the Upturn of the Solar ${}^8$B Neutrino Spectrum with LENA
• First Evidence of Solar Neutrino Interactions on ${}^{13}$C